Daniel Bryan, and the new Corporation

Hi folks!

Wow, it's been a long time between drinks. But, I, David J James (The Aussie Mouthpiece), am back once again! Hopefully for good this time! I'm talking to some other wrestling websites, and I will potentially be writing for one, or more very soon, but for now I figured why not put this article up here, on my own blog? Sounds good right?

I should point out, I wrote this a week ago (with the exception of the *edit* paragraph), and already, even only one episode of Raw later, things have progressed again. But, enough of that, enjoy the article!

Since Summerslam, things have changed in the WWE. Randy Orton has finally turned heel after what seems like far too long, and in what most people I'm sure would call a bit of a swerve, Triple H and Stephanie also aligned themselves with Vince McMahon, turning heel as well. I'm sure most people, including myself, thought that Vince was going to be the heel and Triple H would be the guy trying to keep Vince from running rampant over the company once more. 

Now I understand that because this is quite a big change, the WWE really have to show Triple H and Stephanie as being absolutely in control and make us believe that things are different and that they run everything, but for the last 3 episodes of Raw, the final image has essentially been the same. Daniel Bryan, beaten, lying in the ring, with Randy Orton posing with the WWE title, and Triple H (and sometimes Stephanie) smiling with a group of wrestlers watching on from the stage. A little repetitive, don't you think?

Isn't the best part of any storyline the back and forth? Sometimes the bad guy gets the upper hand, but sometimes, isn't the good guy supposed to have a little bit of a win? Even if it's just that he escapes from the clutches of said bad guy? If it's all totally one sided, it becomes predictable and boring. When Austin was champion, McMahon still got the best of him from time to time. You have to keep it fresh, otherwise the audience will get bored, and eventually, if you keep beating down Daniel Bryan, it's going to seem like he really can't win. 

Spoilers follow if you haven't seen this week's Raw (2nd of September 2013)

As it stands right now, they haven't crossed that line intro repetitive-ness just yet. I don't mind that things have ended essentially the same way, because there have been slight differences. Like this week's episode, with the addition of The Big Show's presence, and his struggle with choosing whether to do the right thing for his family versus what he knows is right. It does bother me that they're kind of rehashing a storyline that JBL and HBK had in 2009, where Shawn was broke and having to do things he didn't want to do just to feed his family, and that I think only about a year ago they had Show crying when his job was on the line, but still, it's an interesting addition to the story.

As I was watching the final moments of this week's Raw however, a thought occured to me. Earlier in the show, Dolph Ziggler was basically destroyed by Ryback after Dean Ambrose had attacked him, and Cody Rhodes was fired after losing a match to Randy Orton. I'm sure that moments like this will probably happen more in the coming weeks, however of course in Cody's case, if he's getting married, it's a great way to write him off of TV for a little while. 

But what if a couple more guys get fired, or, if not fired, targeted by this new corporation that seems to be emerging? Maybe this happens over the course of a couple of months, as we near Survivor Series. Who knows, maybe the CM Punk/Heyman storyline gets entangled in the Corporate storyline? There was a little tease of that this week with Triple H speaking to Heyman. Regardless of that, so far, we have Daniel Bryan, The Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, and Cody Rhodes. 

That sounds like a pretty good faction to me. ESPECIALLY if you added in CM Punk at some point. 

An anti Corporation faction. Daniel Bryan and CM Punk as the leader(/s) and the guys going after the title and Triple H, The Big Show as the enforcer and the veteran, and, along with Dolph and Cody as well, maybe as a tag team, the guys who go after The Shield. 

Now maybe this is just because lately I've been watching WCW Monday Nitro from 1996, but imagine if they write Ziggler off of TV for a few weeks, and then he and Cody just start showing up, totally unannounced and they hit the ring, beat up someone (not necessarily The Shield) and then run out through the crowd. Or just turn up, somehow get a microphone (or a bullhorn, like CM Punk did the first week after he was suspended) and give a Scott Hall-esque promo, like the first night he showed up on Nitro. "You want a war? You got one!" Or even just have Cody show up. Why not just re do the beginnings of the NWO angle? People see highlights but, being that it happened now 17 years ago, a lot of people will have forgotten every single thing that happened. And I don't mean right up to when Hogan was shown to be the third guy, of course that wouldn't work in this situation... I just mean in the sense that you show these guys as total outsiders, they're not part of the WWE anymore. 

They could even bring Dusty Rhodes out one night.. eventually he could become a manager type figure for the group even.

But this could continue, maybe CM Punk could be the big reveal a-la Hogan NWO, except of course that this group is definitely not a heel stable. It just feels like what they are trying to do with the story at the moment is basically overwhelm us with how much power Triple H has, and really make it seem impossible that no one man can overcome it. It feels like there needs to be a group.

Here's a far out idea.... Steve Austin. Austin is most identified with the Attitude era, and his main rivalry in that time was with Vince McMahon, standing up to a tyrannical boss, fighting seemingly insurmountable odds at times, yet always finding a way. What if Austin came back as a spokesperson for this new group? It could even lead into the much talked about "one more match" people have been begging to see from him. 

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think the whole group should comprise of guys who have been fired.. it wouldn't work well. You have to keep some believability, and I don't think anyone in this day and age of wrestling would believe 4 guys could sneak into a wrestling event to the point that they could get in the ring without security catching them. But I can definitely believe a couple of guys who have been fired, being let in and snuck into the back, by someone else who still has a job... couldn't you?

So this would go on, just with Cody initially, but then after a few weeks, you bring in Dolph. Dolph and Cody grab a cameraman backstage and promo, saying that they're bringing the fight back to Triple H, they're not going to stand for it, they won't go down without a fight etc, and that their friends are with them and that soon, everyone will know who's on what side. Maybe the next week on Raw, Triple H tightens security so much that there's no way for them to get in, or so it seems, and the final moments of the show are a camera rushing around in the back, only to be led to one or more members of the shield knocked out, leaving questions as to who could've done it, if Cody and Dolph aren't in the building. 

Remember at this point, there would have been no mention of Daniel Bryan being associated with them, or the Big Show. Big Show I think will become the sort of unwilling muscle for Triple H, doing his bidding so that his family doesn't suffer, and Daniel Bryan will be trying to get the WWE Title. And, IF CM Punk is to be involved, there would be no mention of his association either. Cody and Dolph would appear to be acting on their own. I would even go so far as to say they could have Dolph use his real name. I mean, if he's fired from the WWE, why would he still continue to use his WWE name? If it's going to be believeable, especially today with everything that's happened, it has to be, and feel real. Dolph coming out and saying "WWE called me Dolph, but you can just call me Nick" Or something much better than that, would feel real. Saying that he's glad to be rid of the shackles of being stuck with a name like Dolph Ziggler, and that now he can be himself. I'd even have him cut his hair, or dye it or something, really put over the whole idea that Dolph Ziggler was an image that he never wanted, and he did it because the higher-ups made him do it. 

Maybe they could involve the Prime Time Players in some way as well. They're in the spotlight somewhat at the moment and seem to be getting a push, so maybe they could be a part of the faction, especially if CM Punk wasn't a part of it. You'd need more guys to help get it over if you didn't have the presence of an established main eventer. Not that Daniel Bryan isn't one, he's just new onto the WWE Championship scene. To me though, CM Punk makes sense. Look at 2011, he was trying to make change, he was battling against the bosses, and even against Triple H. 

But I digress. So as we get closer to Survivor Series, the other members of this faction reveal themselves, and reveal that it was them that let Cody and Dolph (or Nick) into the buildings. Firstly Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, because it seems like the most obvious fit, and the ones that the fans would pick. To me at this point, Big Show would have all but turned heel, like, we know he doesn't want to be doing what he's doing, but he's getting more comfortable with it, knowing that he's protecting his future. Or at least it seems that way, because the week before Survivor Series (or two weeks before so there could be a slightly bigger build), in a match between Daniel Bryan and the Big Show, with Randy Orton (still WWE Champion) as the special guest referee, the match ends when Big Show knocks out Randy Orton. He then gets on the mic, and reveals himself to be the 5th member of whatever this faction is called, and challenges Triple H to a match at survivor Series. The other 4 members could then go into a 4 vs 4 traditional Survivor Series Match.. The Shield and Randy Orton vs CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Ziggler and Rhodes.

And the rebel faction wins.

So now we have a sort of reverse NWO angle happening, where the invading faction starts as babyfaces, not anti-heroes.

Triple H has to up the ante after the loss at Survivor Series, so what does he do? He turns to an old friend... No, not Kevin Nash. We're not talking about the Kliq here, we're talking Evolution. We're talking about The Animal.. Batista. So with Randy Orton, Batista, and The Shield as the main cast in the new corporation, and Punk, Bryan, Big Show, Ziggler and Cody Rhodes, and Austin as the Manager type figure who can sit there and argue with Vince and occasionally hit a stunner, you've got clear conflicts and what I think would be a great, refreshing storyline.

Now I said Austin's involvement could lead to a match at Wrestlemania. Most people think this match should (and will) be Austin vs CM Punk, and to me it seems pretty logical. They don't even have to turn either of them heel. Just have them disagree with each other a few times and have it cost Punk a couple of matches, maybe one for the title, and then have Punk challenge Austin. If anyone can push Austin's buttons to make him accept, it's CM Punk on the mic. 

Now the other storyline that's been thrown around is that at Wrestlemania next year, we're going to have some kind of match involving Vince McMahon vs Triple H, with Triple H being the heel.

My theory on that, is that Vince is going to be inducted into the hall of fame next year, and that wouldn't really work if he was a bad guy. The match, so the story goes, is going to have "the control of the WWE" at stake, so maybe it's going to be Vince's "retirement" match. But what I've seen is that Vince wouldn't actually wrestle. So my idea would be that it would end up being Big Show, wrestling for Vince, who at some point during this whole thing, sided with the rebels, maybe after realising Triple H is drunk with power or something like that. So he selects The Big Show, and Triple H would either wrestle himself, or have Batista, or maybe Dean Ambrose wrestle in his place. Either way, he wins with the help of The Shield and Batista, and Vince has to leave. 

Then you've got Cody and Dolph, maybe they wrestle for the Tag team Titles, and that leaves Daniel Bryan vs Randy Orton for the title. And if it was me, I would have it so that Bryan has come close at other Pay per views, but has been screwed each time. The thing with having CM Punk in the faction is that they can have Punk go after the title so it doesn't get so stale that today's wrestling fans get bored. I would think then, Daniel Bryan could win the Rumble, and then finally at Wrestlemania, just as it was with Shawn Michaels, he finally wins the belt at Wrestlemania 30. 

Now the only thing I haven't added in to this idea is that Cena will be back at some point, and they would probably want him to be involved. Well here's an idea that will never happen, Cena returns, and he sides with Triple H. Maybe instead of Batista or Dean Ambrose, It's John Cena that wrestles with Triple H in his corner. More likely in this scenario, Cena would return and wrestle in Vince's place against Batista, and then you could have Big Show vs Dean Ambrose for the US title. That would also work, and seems like it would fit more with WWE's style, never wanting to touch Cena's character. 

So that's my big idea, that's what I've been thinking about all afternoon since seeing Raw. I'm sure there are tons of holes in my theory that I havne't even thought of, but as I said, I thought this all up in one afternoon.

*edit*

After seeing this week's Raw, and seeing Dolph lose to Bray Wyatt and Goldust's return, I'm thinking Dolph may be moved away from the main storyline. I can't actually remember the last time I saw him win a match which is interesting, but regardless, I did start thinking that maybe what would be good, would be if instead of Dolph, you have Dustin Rhodes (not Goldust), join Cody in the sneak attacks I mentioned earlier, and they, as a duo are the rebels that start this whole crazy story that I came up with.

Of course though, as we know, the WWE powers that be most likely have it all figured out already and it'll be nothing like what I am thinking. This is just me putting my fantasy booking hat on.

Let me know what you think.. would a faction like this work in today's WWE? Could the WWE sustain this storyline for the next 6 months without the fans getting bored? Would the fans believe it? Because after all, that is the most important thing. Let me know by tweeting me at @david_j_james (formerly known as The Aussie Mouthpiece)

And remember.. David J James is where the power lies. 

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.16

Hello again readers, I'm (finally) back. I do have to apologise for not keeping up with the regular blogging, I've had a fair bit of stuff happening and it's been hard to find the time to write anything of substance. But I am back now, and I will endeavour to write at least one post a week, with a semi-regular article now and then on sltdwrestling and pwjournal as well.

So... what exactly do I plan to talk about, I hear you ask? Well, this week I'm going to focus on a few key points that I've been wanting to talk about. Over the Limit was just about a week ago, and I'm still thinking about it. I made a last minute decision to order the Pay Per View, and I have to say, overall I wasn't disappointed. Well, up until the Fatal 4-way match I wasn't overly impressed, but that match, along with CM Punk/Daniel Bryan and also the Cena/Laurinitis match really made it worthwhile, in my opinion at least.

So Over the Limit will be one topic of conversation, namely the two main event matches. This week's episode of Monday Night Raw will be another, and finally I will probably get into some of the news items that I've read in the last week or so, like the announcement of Raw going to 3 hours, the recent news of Jericho's suspension, and a couple of interesting TNA news bits as well.

So let's get down to business.

Over the Limit. A decent event with a terrible name. What's wrong with Judgement Day, Unforgiven, Backlash, or No Mercy? But I'm not here to talk about the name.

I want to talk about two of the matches. Namely, CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan, and John Cena vs John Laurinitis. The Fatal 4-way was a really good match as well, and just quickly, I thought Jericho's performance in said match was right up there with the best performance of the night. And he hasn't been "buried". Zack Ryder has been buried. Look at the difference.

Ok enough about that.

Let's start with Punk and Bryan.

A classic. A possible match of the year candidate. But more than that, this match proved that the WWE is moving into a new era. Or at least, if they keep this feud going it will. This is what people have been asking for, and in some cases demanding for years. Wanting WRESTLING. When is the last time we saw a surfboard submission hold, or a curb stomp kind of move?

The crowd was into this match so much because it's what we've wanted to see. It feels like somebody in the WWE has finally listened to the people. Punk and Bryan told an amazing story with what they did, with all the counters and moves that weren't just a part of their normal everyday repetoire, showing that they can adapt and bring something new to the table. Having had such similar careers, having had so many matches in the past, we're getting to see a polished version of a Punk/Danielson match.

Punk and Bryan are so similar, which I think is another reason that they work so well together. They both know submission wrestling, both of them use martial arts kicks, but guys are of that size that can perform power moves and look convincing, yet still small enough to do a bit of high-flying wrestling as well. To me that's the perfect type of wrestler, the combination of powerhouse and high-flyer, because it provides more opportunities for different matches, as opposed to someone like Batista, or Cena, who are more limited because of their size. Shawn Michaels is another guy who fits into that same build as Punk and Bryan, and we all know how good Shawn is.

What else can I say? It was just an amazing match. I thought the finish was great, a little bit less of a gap between the pinfall and Punk tapping would have made it just that little bit better, but I still can't really fault it. It leaves the story open for more matches, and hopefully the WWE lets this feud continue, at least until Money in the Bank, or possible Summerslam. The fact that they let Punk and Bryan go out there and put on this match for 30 minutes or so gives me a lot of hope.


Ok now let's talk about Cena and Laurinitis.

I saw a lot of people complaining on Twitter about this match, saying that it was a disgrace, it shouldn't have been the main event, and a lot of other negative things. But, I have quite a different point of view.

This match was just about as entertaining as Punk and Bryan. Sure, it was never going to be a wrestling classic, but for what it was, which really was what everyone has wanted to see ever since Laurinitis has been on TV, it was great.

If you can, watch it again, and listen to the commentary. Even Michael Cole was taking shots at Johnny Ace. It was hilarious. Speaking of commentary, the little spot they did where Cena and Ace had the headphones on and were doing impressions of Cole and Booker T... absolutely great.

Now this is where I'm probably going to rub people the wrong way. John Laurinitis earned my respect with this match. Let's talk in terms of the real side of wrestling. John Laurinitis let himself be humiliated for nearly 15 minutes at the start of this match. He had water poured down his pants, a fire extinguisher emptied onto him, and a trash can dumped on to him, and a bunch of other stuff. Plus that outfit.. if that's not embarrassing I don't know what is. Also, he showed that he can actually move somewhat decently in the ring, and deliver a damn good chair shot.

Now it was obvious to everyone with a brain cell that Big Show was going to come back, and help Johnny win. It was done well, but it was predictable. Sometimes predictable is good, but surprises to me are always better.

Anyway, I think this match deserves a second look, and more than that, needs to be viewed from the point of view that even though Johnny Ace isn't the greatest on the mic, and he's not that entertaining when he's talking, when he's being beaten up, he's not half bad.

And if you can't, just remember that at one time, Vince McMahon pissed his pants on Raw. Making an ass out of yourself when you're the boss helps get you over, and helps get over the guy beating you up.


Ok let's talk quickly about RAW.

I liked Big Show's promo, but it still feels just like more of the same from heel Big Show. I hope that the writers, or even Show himself can take it in a slightly different direction, just to keep it feeling a little fresh.

I also liked the little revenge segment with CM Punk and Bryan during Bryan's match with Kane. Any time that CM Punk is on commentary you know it's going to be entertaining. "I hate to see anybody get chokeslammed twice in a row".. He's so good on the microphone. I really wish that the WWE would give Punk more time on the mic, let him get back to what he was doing in July and August last year.

It does indeed appear that this feud is going to keep going. It might be a bit early to call this, but I feel like, if booked right, Punk/Bryan has the potential to get to the same level as Rock/Austin, or maybe Cena/Edge. But it has to be done right, and that possibility isn't the highest with the way the WWE has been going lately.

Speaking of Punk, that backstage segment with AJ was brilliant. Yet again Punk shows he's multi-faceted and talented in so many different ways. Subtle little movements and little words. Also I think AJ deserves a lot of credit for her extremely well played crazy chick, especially when Punk said "stop cyring" and she looked up at him all doe eyed and slightly smiling.. that was creepy.

I thought the very end of RAW was good as well, Big Show's punch to me came out of nowhere. It was well done, and helps re-establish Big Show as a legitimate threat to Cena, as opposed to the week before where he was a blubbering mess on his knees in the ring.

Ok and a few loose ends.

When are we going to get Kharma back? From what I've read, she's ready to come back, but the writers have nothing for her.. nothing for her??? She's the most dominant female wrestler of the last.. well possibly forever. Bring her back exactly the same way she was brought in last year. It worked then, it will work now. Job done WWE writers.. hire me instead!

Jericho has been suspended for messing with the Brazilian flag... We certainly are in a different era to 15 years ago when Shawn Michaels stuck the canadian flag up his nose aren't we? I understand it though, clearly there were some legal ramifications, and the WWE had to take some kind of action. Whether it's all a storyline or not, I like this reality era that we're getting at the moment, because we do get these instances of "is this real?" Which hasn't been around for a long time.

Ok that's about it for now, once again I apologise for how long it's taken me to write this. But fear not, I will be back to my regularly scheduled programming from now on.

Don't forget you can follow me on twitter if you're not already, at @TheOZMouthpiece and also check out my writing on sltdwrestling.blogspot.com
There's only two or three pieces up on there, but I think they're quite good, so if you haven't seen them, go there and click on the writers tab, find me, and take a look.

Also take a look at these two fine sites, which I have done writing for in the past.

http://pwjournal.wordpress.com

www.wrestlingheads.com

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

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. 13

G'day everyone, I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece and it's time again to take a look at the week that was in wrestling. This week I will as usual focus on Monday Night Raw, but as an extra added bonus, I've got some things I want to write about regarding TNA and the Lockdown PPV, which I haven't watched in detail, but some of the results got me thinking, and made me realise there's some aspects of TNA's product that have been bugging me for a while.

So sit back, relax, put your reading glasses and your learning eyes on, and let's get down to business.

Raw this week was coming to us from merry old England. I always enjoy when we get an episode of Raw or Smackdown from overseas, the crowds always seem hotter. I guess it's because the WWE comes to their country maybe once a year, and in that one time, people from the entire country flock to see them. At least, that's the way it works here in Australia. But it gives the show a bigger, slightly more epic feel about it, and I think overall, this week's episode did not disappoint, although I'm sure the live audience would have liked to have seen Lesnar in person rather than just on videotape.

Speaking of the crowd, they were right behind CM Punk this week. Don't get me wrong, the crowd is always behind Punk, but this week the cheers seemed louder, and more pronounced. Again it's probably something to do with not seeing the product live as much, but it feels like Punk's character has become.. not watered down, but not quite as edgy as it was a few months ago. So it was good to hear Punk getting the massive cheers. The "yes" chants during Punk's kicking sequences were awesome as well.

What a great match Henry and Punk had. There was one part where Mark Henry caught Punk, and flung him, quite violently, into the guardrail. It looked amazingly brutal.Henry has improved his consistency so much in the last year. He always had this potential, and his size and strength got him over immediately.. but now that he's added in the character development, the "hall of pain" angle, and the consistency of having great matches, he's finally stepped into that spot that the WWE have had set out for him for so many years. And I for one am really happy for him.

Last week I talked about there being a theme to the show. This week's theme seemed to be Extreme. No DQ matches, Extreme Rules matches.. Jericho going to extremes trying to prove CM Punk is an alcoholic.

One thing that I found funny, is that at Extreme Rules, we have CM Punk vs Jericho in a Street Fight, Brock Lesnar vs Cena in an Extreme Rules match, and Randy Orton vs Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match. .. Now.. maybe it's just me, but aren't those three matches essentially the same thing? I remember a few years ago there was a Ladder match, a Stretcher match.. some kind of street fight match.. It just seems a little weird to have three matches all called different things, yet basically meaning the same thing.

Punk and Jericho's back and forth promo was decent, but it was just more of the same stuff from Jericho especially, and to me, it just seems like they've lost a little momentum in the feud because of that. It's not even in the realm of possibility that CM Punk would become a drunk from one drink, and honestly, this is supposed to be the "reality" era, storylines based more in reality, and in reality, I don't buy that Chris Jericho would believe the things he is saying about Cm Punk. It just feels like some steam has been let out or something.
Hopefully the match at Extreme Rules either changes things up again, the way it did when Jericho first attacked Punk with the Whiskey bottle, or it becomes the end of their rivalry.

So let's talk about the best part of the night. Funnily enough not even a live in-ring segment. The Brock Lesnar interview is of course the segment I'm referring to.
The way they've brought him back, the fact that two weeks in a row he's taken out Cena, he doesn't feel like a WWE superstar. As he said, he feels like an ass kicker. It's made him feel bigger than the WWE, and by referencing his UFC career, instantly making him legitimate.
I get the feeling that they got the idea for this interview from the UFC preview shows that are on before the pay per views where they interview each fighter. Again, making it feel .. "real". It's working really well so far, but the big test comes at Extreme Rules. It's one thing to take a guy down and have a bit of a melee with him, but it's certainly a whole different thing to have a match, especially with the top guy in the company.

Making it a "hardcore" (lets face it, that's what this is) match, I think will actually help, because it relies less on the wrestling and more on the big spots. I'm still hoping for a great match though.

So Cena comes out to "answer" Lesnar's interview essentially, but instead it seems he's focused on John Laurinitis. It's an interesting change, but I don't know if it's the right move. This match really needs to be about Lesnar and Cena. Nothing more. To me it should be about how they started around the same time, and the differences in their characters. I know they did that with The Rock and Cena, but this is a different animal. Lesnar isn't some actor who has a bunch of cool catchphrases. He's a legitimate fighter.

I thought it was good that Tensai got put into the main event, and even though it was a dirty win, he still won. I think his character isn't exactly a long term thing, but it works for now, and it's something different which is always a good thing. Variety can bring in more diverse crowds.


Ok so very quickly let's talk about TNA.

Now I haven't been paying a hell of a lot of attention to TNA lately, but I did see recently on impact that Velvet Sky won a battle royal or some kind of 6 woman match to become the number one contender for the knockouts title. And it's not the first time they've done something like that.
My problem with this is it felt like Velvet accomplished this big thing, like it was a big deal that she overcame all the challenges to become the No.1 Contender, yet at Lockdown, she lost.

My problem isn't exactly that she lost, it's just the way the match was set up, with how much emphasis was put on the fact that she won this huge thing to get the title shot.
And the way that she lost. Gail Kim was half knocked out from the powerbomb from the turnbuckle, yet won with a reversed roll up.. how did she have the strength to do that? It's just bad booking or whatever it's called these days. To me it would have made more sense if she hit her finisher and fell into a cover.

It felt the same with the Motor City Machine Guns. Now I am a huge fan of these guys. I was so happy to see them back together, and that Sabin has recovered from his injury. Yet in their first Pay Per view match back as a team, they lost.

Why not book them in a tag team match, but not for the titles? That way they could win and build momentum and make it feel like their return was a success. Maybe I just think in a weird way though.

Overall it just feels like they book things in advance, or tape things in advance and then change their minds about the results at the pay per views, and then the previous events don't make as much sense.

I also thought it was a little strange that Jeff Hardy won the match with a massive Swanton Bomb. Those spots used to be somewhere in the middle of a match, not the finish. I mean of course it works, but then within a minute, Jeff was up, walking around and congratulating fans, which again, doesn't seem realistic. I know it's a worked sport, but isn't the point to try to get us, as fans, to suspend disbelief? If something generally wouldn't happen if it was real, why would you do it as part of the show?

Overall I didn't mind Lockdown however, some of it was terrible, some of it was great. Kind of like TNA in general. But they need less emphasis on the older guys, and way more on the younger guys and the Tag team division.

Ok that's about it. So as usual, you can follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece , and also leave  me a comment on here to let me know what you think.

Oh and one last thing, thanks to @TherealWB and @VOWLive for making me their guest blogger, which was awesome!

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

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.

Home Schooling No.11

Well.. what a week it's been in the world of wrestling. Wrestlemania, the Hall of Fame, and two epic episodes of Raw. And that was just on the WWE side of things. I think it's safe to say that this week has been one of the best Wrestling weeks for a long time.

Before we get into this weeks' episode of Raw, and the Hall of Fame special, let's talk a little bit more about Wrestlemania.
Having watched it a few more times, I'm even more convinced that Wrestlemania 28 is one of the better Mania's ever. Everyone put in a good performance, all of the matches had some memorable moments (yes, even the Orton/Kane and Cody/Big Show matches) and all the big matches lived up to the hype, and in the case of the Hell in a Cell match, exceeded expectations.

I said last night that out of all the 'Mania matches that Triple H, Undertaker and Shawn have had in this 4 year journey, last night's was easily the second best. I don't think anything could top the first Taker/Shawn match, but this was a close second. The emotion, the story told, the brutality, it was all amazing.

The other thing is that the CM Punk/Jericho match is better the second time you watch it. You're not coming down from watching Taker/HHH for the first time, so you get a better appreciation for what they did with the match. I highly recommend checking it out again if you can.

If you haven't already, check out my full Wrestlemania review on here by viewing the previous post to this one.

So let's talk a little about the expectations of this week's Raw.

The post-wrestlemania Raw.. To me it is the episode with the most chance to be a total let down. What rivalries would continue? What new conflicts would begin? Where would the WWE go? And especially this year, with Wrestlemania's theme being the End of an Era, what would the start of the new era be like?

So let's get down to business and talk about Raw.

The first episode of the new era. The first episode of John Laurinitis' total control of the WWE.  And the start of the new year, at least in terms of wrestling.

Initially I was thinking that all of the rivalries that we saw at Wrestlemania would end, and it would be a clean slate. But I'm glad that this wasn't the case, and we saw the Chris Jericho/CM Punk rivalry continue. It felt like it had a lot more that could be done with it, and now it appears we're going to get at least one more PPV match.

And it also appears that Big Show and Cody will be continuing for a little longer. Cody needs to get his rematch at least. As does Daniel Bryan.

Before I get into the specifics of the events on Raw this week, let's talk about Daniel Bryan. WWE have been building him as a heel, and doing a fairly good job of it. There were still smatterings of cheers for him, which I can understand. The guy went through a lot just to get to the WWE, and you could tell that winning the World title meant a lot to him.

But then, in one moment, everything changed. Well, to be specific, in 18 seconds, everything changed. Maybe this was the WWE's plan all along, but I don't think so. Daniel Bryan, because of being beaten so quickly, and having a simple, catchy catchphrase (that sounds weird), has become a fan favourite again it seems. How many times did a YES! YES! YES! chant break out on Raw this week? And more to the point, how many times did a Daniel Bryan chant break out at Wrestlemania and Raw?

And speaking of the Yes chant, I have to agree with a few people's posts I've seen in forums and on twitter, in that this chant is going to be as big as Stone Cold's "what?". It's so easy to fit into a wide range of situations during matches and promos, and it's catchy. Let's just hope that it doesn't become as over-used as What? is. And let's also hope that Bryan Danielson's biggest legacy is NOT the introduction of this chant. He deserves better. For now though, it's awesome. YES! YES! YES!


Now let's get to the events of RAW.

John Laurinitis continues to portray himself as a fair general manager, while still favouring the heels. It's a really well done and quite tricky thing to do I think. I mean really, it would be much easier for him to not be seemingly staying impartial, and being a flat out heel. I kind of like it. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree with CM Punk, Johnny Ace is a giant toolbox. I mean, last week on Raw he got his own team's name wrong. That can't be done on purpose. Really. It can't. He's just bad.

We got to see the debut of Lord Tensai this week. I'm quite surprised there were no Shave your Back chants (unless I missed something). I was glad that Michael Cole at least referenced the fact that he'd been in the WWE before. It shows that they don't think we're all idiots and have no long term memory.

I'll be honest, I was never a big fan of A-Train back in 2003. It may have been because he was in a feud with the Undertaker and I was a bit of a mark, but something about him just didn't click with me. What's clear though is that he's improved amazingly since then. I haven't seen a lot of his work from Japan, but I was really impressed with his match this week on Raw. He looks great too. I mean, it's hard to make an american guy look japanese, but they've done quite well.

You can tell he's still getting used to the new character, but it was still a really good debut. I'm a big fan of his stalling underhook suplex just quietly as well. All in all it wasn't a let down, and that's the best thing. So welcome back to Prince Albert/A-Train/Giant Bernard/Lord Tensai. Hopefully we get some really good stuff out of it.

I'll get to the other return towards the end of this post. There's still quite a bit to talk about first. Like CM Punk and Jericho.

CM Punk ... he's becoming the guy who can have a great match with anybody. What a great match he had with Mark Henry this week. And what an amazing crowd. At some points, it felt like they were more amped for Raw than the crowd at Wrestlemania was. So many YES! chants. And even a couple of No chants.

But the real story here was after the match. Punk was laid out by Mark Henry, which gave Chris Jericho the opportunity to come out and make their feud even more personal. I wasn't sure it could get more intense, but seeing as how he poured one bottle of .. "alcohol" into his mouth, and broke a second one over the back of his head.. it's safe to say it has.

I was genuinely shocked with that bottle smash. Even though it clearly was designed to break with any kind of impact, it was still a very graphic thing to see. I hope that it wasn't really alcohol in the bottles, I would imagine it was cold tea rather than actual Jack Daniels.. I'm fairly sure that the WWE wouldn't put Cm Punk in that position.

So where is this all heading? To me it's got to be a rematch, with some kind of gimmick or stipulation added to the match at Extreme Rules. Maybe a Street fight, and if Jericho wins, Cm Punk has to drink a shot or something. To me that would be an interesting stipulation. Especially if CM Punk lost.

But well done to the WWE for intensifying this rivalry even more, and keeping it interesting beyond the Wrestlemania match.

Great to see Alberto back.. but you already knew that. Hopefully he gets a slight character change so he's not quite so bland this time.

I found it interesting that Sheamus was getting a few boos as well. Sheamus vs Bryan has a lot of life left in it. Hopefully WWE capitalises on that.

And now, probably for the last time for a while, let's talk about Rock and Cena. Oh and that other guy who came back.. Lesnar I think his name is?

Rocky had the first in-ring segment this week. It was mostly just standard Rock stuff, which is fine. Those people who were chanting "same old shit" to Cena need to realise that most established wrestlers do the "same old shit" because it's what made them who they are, and get off of the anti-Cena bandwagon.

He did make the announcement that he wants to be WWE champ again however. I'm intrigued by this. To do that, he would have to be coming back for a full time spot, at least for a couple of months. Which, let's face it, as long as he remembers how to be The Rock, can only be a good thing.

I'm glad that both Rock and Cena showed respect to each other by thanking each other. It didn't feel scripted either. It felt real. It felt like it was from the heart.

Rocky delivered a great Rock promo. I just hope he sticks to his word, and doesn't stay away for too long, proving those right who said he was lying when he said he was never leaving.

Before i get to Cena, I just have to say.. that crowd was one of the loudest I think I've ever heard for a Monday Night Raw. Absolutely awesome.

Ok let's skip ahead to the end of the show, and John Cena. Cena came out and, just like The Rock, he cut a very "cena" promo.

The greatest thing about this yes chant is it's ability to very simply and very directly tell the WWE exactly what we, the fans, want to see.
It seemed like John wanted to react to the "You're a loser" chant too. Unfortunately it seems like a different plan is in effect.

But as clear as day, take another look at the part of Cena's promo where he says "would this finally be the day where I lash out at the WWE universe?"
The crowd chants louder than ever, YES! Cena's response is "I hate to be the bearer of bad news" etc.. and the crowd erupt in boos.

Why can't the WWE see that this is what we all want to see? I honestly think that Cena would get cheered if he "turned heel".  Based on the crowd's reaction this week, he might get the biggest babyface pop of the night. The one saving grace is that the longer it takes for Cena to turn (he will at some point), the better it's going to be when he finally does make that switch.

I did like that Cena chanted along with the fans at one point during a Yes chant.

But then.. that familiar music hits, and out walks Brock Lesnar! And what a reaction from that amazing crowd. And he looked great too. What we need to remember is that back in 2002/03 Cena and Lesnar were both coming up the ranks. Lesnar made it a little quicker than Cena, but they both started right around the same time. But we never really saw them feud.

So it's two established guys who have never really touched in the ring before. I'm sure they have had a few interactions, but it's basically new. And that's something that, aside from Rock/Cena, hasn't happened a lot lately. All the top guys have wrestled each other. Really think about it, which of the "top guys" at the moment, haven't had some kind of feud with each other. By top guys I mean CM Punk, Orton, Cena, Jericho, Miz and Kane.

Brock Lesnar coming back to the WWE is massive. It's bigger than massive. There will be a slew of people who discovered Brock when he started fighting in the UFC and became massive Lesnar fans. And now that he's back on TV, you would have to imagine they will start tuning in. It gives the WWE more credibility as well. A legitimate fighter coming back to Pro Wrestling. We've seen wrestlers go to the UFC, but I'm certain we've never seen it the other way around. Maybe that Daniel Puder, but he doesn't really count.

You could tell Brock was happy to be back as well. Sure, he left under.. interesting circumstances, but all that is in the past, and everyone has forgotten and forgiven. I think it will take a little time for the character to come back out in him, he seemed a little subdued this week. I would imagine that's just from being in the UFC for that long, and also it's been 8 years since he was in the WWE. He's matured a lot since then. But give it a couple of weeks for him to get back into the swing of things, to get comfortable, and I'm sure we'll get more of a character out of Brock Lesnar.

I'm excited about the potential this has. Listen to the crowd during his entrance. It was almost like they were chanting holy shit to say "the wwe actually gave us what we wanted? Holy shit!" .. Maybe this is a turning point.  Whatever the case, Lesnar is going to give the WWE a big injection of big name star-power that's definitely going to be welcomed with open arms.

Just quickly on the hall of fame special, I really enjoyed the whole thing, even though it was so cut down and shortened. Hopefully the DVD/Bluray release of Wrestlmania will have the entire show on it. But the parts that were shown were great. It was awesome to see Ric Flair on WWE programming again, Shawn and Triple H were really funny, and Edge's speech (at least the parts shown) was wonderful. He deserved to be the main guy.

Speaking of Edge (I swear this is the last thing) I watched Bending the Rules today as well. I actually didn't mind it. It's no classic by any means, but it didn't suck. If you like action comedies, it's worth watching. Edge gives a really good performance, even if the story is slightly hard to follow at some points.

Ok that's about all I have to say this week. Oh, no it's not. I've started writing articles for We Want Wrestling, which can be found at http://pwjournal.wordpress.com/ and my first article can be found at http://pwjournal.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/the-aussie-mouthpiece-is-here-2/ Check them both out!

Until next time you can follow me on twitter if you don't already @TheOZMouthpiece and you should leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Business is over.

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.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.