Professional Wrestling

[DennyMcLain]

You have No Chance in Hell of being wrong about that!

Matt "The Mauler" Bonner might have a chance.

[Darth Thanatos]

Well, if you stopped watching wrestling 3-5 years ago you would remember Triple H, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, Edge, Chris Jericho and The Undertaker.

Guess what? Those are the guys that will be in the top matches at Mania

Well, three of those guys are in the prime of their careers(Orton, Edge, Cena), while one came off the best year of his career(Y2J) so I have no problem with those guys being top dogs.

[Pharaoh]

I'm not saying that those guys being on top is a bad thing in itself (especially Orton, Jericho and Edge), but Vince McMahon is in the entertainment business. Any sane person will have to agree that if you do not create new stars then the old ones will wear out their welcome at some point.

Guys like Ken Kennedy (injury prone) and Jeff Hardy (drug problem) are 2 guys that could have been at the top of the heap (or close to it) but shit just didn't work out. Kennedy is just unlucky, while Hardy is a fucking idiot who can't stay off the drugs.

CM Punk, Matt Hardy, MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Rey Mysterio have been/currently are booked in such a way that the WWE has shot itself in the foot. Either one of those guys could have been pushed to the moon given the right angle, especially Punk, Hardy or Mysterio when you consider they had heels like Orton, Edge and Jericho to work with.

Look at how over Punk is, yet he's basically treated like a jobber because he doesn't have the look or the moveset that WWE traditionally likes. Get a clue WWE: That's why he's so fucking over in the first place.

This cookie cutter shit can't last forever.

Denny: If TNA just stole storylines from internet fans that company would be so much better than it is right now. Vince Russo gets all the blame but at the end of the day Jeff Jarrett approves that shit so he should take the blame IMO.

IF 5 years ago I told you that TNA would have Kurt Angle, Booker T, Sting, Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash as the top heel stable acting like the NWO you would have thought that TNA was doing great business and was putting the fear of God into Vince.

Well, TNA are doing OK, but McMahon isn't running scared.

TNA could hire the fired Ring of Honor booker or better yet go and pay Paul Heyman whatever it takes to come and head up creative. Either option is better than the shit Russo/Jarrett/Dutch Mantel are putting out now

I don;t know who heads up creative for Smackdown anymore. Michael Hayes (former wrestler, member of the Freebirds) was the head dude until he made some racist comments to Mark Henry.

Or did you guys think that Shelton Benjamin's US Title reign, Kofi Kingston's Intercontinental Title reign and Mark Henry's ECW Title reign happening at the same time was a fluke?

WWE has traditionally not pushed minorities (and the first person to say they pushed The Rock gets my cyber foot up your ass. He was so fucking over he could have read the phone book and people would have tuned in)

[DennyMcLain]

WWE has traditionally not pushed minorities (and the first person to say they pushed The Rock gets my cyber foot up your ass. He was so fucking over he could have read the phone book and people would have tuned in)

Just watched some Rock on You Tube. It's interesting to see the evolution of his character, then the destruction of his character, either by WWE or by himself. His best years were 1999-2001, when he was basically an antihero -- he didn't give a shit WHO he Rock Bottomed, and he was so full of self loving ego it was hilarious. But then his character started playing to his fame, he started joking and mugging more, and it simply wasn't the same.

Still, I'd take the 2002-2003 version of the Rock over nearly every member of the current stable. He was simply the best enterainer out there. And in the end, that's what it's all about -- entertainment. I read over the internets how people think "this" wrestler sucks, or how "that" wrestler doesn't have the skills. Austin had NOTHING but his fist, foot, and shoulder (Stunner), but will go down in history as the most popular WWE wrestler of all time. The character was perfect for the time.

If Cena acted more like Austin (he sort of does right now, but he still gets too soft), it would be fucking great. Don't walk out to the ring and threaten Edge... walk out to the ring a beat all Hell out of Edge. I would havee written it this way: Let Edge and Vicky gloat, but have Cena sneak up from behing with a chair, whack Edge with it, then FU Vicky. Then he takes the belt and walks off. The fans would've loved it, and it's someting you can completely see Cena doing, because he's gone nutso before.

[Pharaoh]

Only problem with your "Cena goes nutso" story is that the WWE is going for a PG rating! A chair shot to the back of the head, or even the back might have to be edited out. And Cena sells more merchandise than anyone has since Austin, so he's not turning on the 8-14 year olds that demand that mom and dad buy his merch.

Also, Cena saying Edge won the belt helps continue the bullshit idea that Edge can just jump Kofi Kingston and take his place in the Chamber match, PLUS it adds to Cena's character that he doesn't whine or complain about the shitty cards he gets dealt, he just dusts himself off and keeps fighting the good fight.

(I don't agree with the way they did it, but I understand it)

I wish Cena would turn heel - but right now it's not gonna happen. Not when Randy Orton, Edge and Chris Jericho are just fucking killing it as bad guys.

On The Rock: The same thing happened with Austin. They both started out as anti-heroes and WWE stupidly chose to fuck with the characters AFTER WCW went out of business and WWE became a publicly traded company.

No longer could they do as they pleased - the corporate conformity took hold.

And after being a wrestling fan since 1985 I can tell you 2 things that I know hurt the Rock:

1) He put everyone over! And I mean everyone - he was willing to get beaten by everyone and wrestling fans are not used to top guys losing to mid-card talent. Remember his stuff with The Hurricane? Ain't no way Austin or Hogan in their prime would have allowed a guy at that level to get face time (Austin even refused to have a feud with Jeff Jarrett, who was a second tier star at the time. Hurricane? He was no tier). The Rock didn't care, because he was so fucking over and he wanted to help other guys move up the ladder.

Not one top wrestler did that in the late 1990's or early 2000's. The only new star created by WCW was Goldberg - who got over on his own through squash matches that fans were eating up. As stated early Rock, HHH, Austin and Foley got over because there was no one there to hold them back.

And 2) He had a real life battle with Shawn Michaels (they still don't like each other). Apparently Shawn disrespected Rock's Mom or something back before HBK found God. Shawn Michaels just happens to be Triple H's best buddy in real life. Triple H also happens to be married to Stephanie McMahon (and was way back when).

Yes, backstage bullshit fucked with The Rock!

Don't believe that WWE creative would weaken a star at the top, or heading to the top over something so petty? If you watch Smackdown then you know that the MVP character went through a long ass losing streak not long ago. The reason for that "storyline"?

When he went for his piss test he made some smart ass comments to the urine collector! Yes, I'm fucking serious. The creative team at WWE stopped pushing MVP towards the main event because he was dickhead ONCE during a piss test.

And Vince McMahon wonders why "smark" fans eat up the backstage stories! It's because we have invested our time, money and effort into these "newer" stars he's created and when said star gets smashed out of his spot near the top we want to know why.

Apparently the internet fans do have a say though. Christian was supposed to be the guy behind the Jeff Hardy attacks, but because that news was everywhere Vince changed it up and had Matt Hardy turn on his brother!

And on top of that Vince apparently put a huge curtain over the Elimination Chamber before No Way Out so no one could see the guys walk through the matches. Naturally, without the curtain everyone would have seen Edge's title loss and title win and the news would have been on the net before the show even began.

[Glenn]

wp;tl;nb;dr

[Timone]

Pharaoh really, really likes wrestling.

[Darth Thanatos]

So do I, but I like Pharaoh even more.

I was pissed when MVP got shot down. How a main event level wrestler was jobbing to the likes of Kizarny and Funaki is baffling. Then again, one of my favorite wrestlers, Elijah Burke, was jobbing like crazy until finally being released last year. Now I know why MVP was shot down, and I'm not shocked at the pettyness of the McMahon's.

[Darth Thanatos]

Changing the culprit from Christian to Matt Hardy made perfect sense. Who else would know what hotel Jeff was staying in or where he lives but his brother? And Matt needed a new direction anyway.

[Pharaoh]

wp;tl;nb;dr

Have no idea what that means so I'll take this opportunity to let you all know where the real 25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania will take place in Phoenix, Arizona at the University of Phoenix Stadium. The Arizona Republic reported it so it must true.

The NFL and college football stadium is actually located in Glendale, but the Arizona Cardinals NFL football team plays there and college football's annual Fiesta Bowl is hosted inside the 65,000-seat stadium.

WWE's official announcement isn't expected until tomorrow. A group of event planners pitched their "Destruction in the Desert" plan to WWE last year. T-shirts were even drawn up, and were worn by hockey great Wayne Gretzky.