cm funk

"They have a match, Sheamus wins. Christian whines, Sheamus jokes. They have another match next show, Sheamus wins. Christian whines, Sheamus jokes. They have another match on the next show, Sheamus wins. Christian whines, Sheamus jokes. And none of the results matter AT ALL. It isn't even a problem that Sheamus wins all the time, I don't give a shit, but it really doesn't matter if he does. If he split the results with Christian, it wouldn't make a single bit of difference, because nobody is going to care who wins random match #3 between them when there were no consequences or interesting developments from the first two." see, this is what I'm talking about. They've both been positioned as former world champions coming back from a long layoff, both wanting to get back to that level, and it's led to a rivalry. It's a very natural story, and it all started when both of them qualified for the Elimination Chamber. They got paired in a tag match, and a friendly rivalry started, which evolved into a not so friendly rivalry. This isn't an inconsequential feud at all

Well, I really enjoy the Sheamus-Christian feud, so I'm at least one person. To each his own.

Raven was slacker X-Gen "oh well whatever nevermind". I always took the character as a rib of sorts. He wasn't the first or last to parody 90's grunge/slacker/x culture

Rikishi-Val Venis in 2000 was a pretty heated mid-card feud that was booked like it mattered Jericho always had interesting mid-card angles and feuds. I know a lot of people complained about his station circa 02-05 as a glorified midcarder, but to me that was a great spot for him to be in. The Jericho/Christian tag team leading into the love triangle deal with Trish wasn't "main event" but it got as much time on RAW as anything and was far and away better and treated more important than just about anything on the show. In those years Jericho got as much tv time as anyone, and as noted before on this board, the true indicator of a push in WWE is tv time. That's why I never got concerned with the booking of Daniel Bryan, because week in and week out he's on tv as much as anyone, and treated like a guy who matters. Even more recently with Jericho, JeriShow were the MVPs of RAW for quite some time, always in main event TV matches, always interacting with the top stars and the celebrity guest hosts, totally elevated the tag belts which were practically worthless before they won them. It worked so well that they immediately copied it with "ShowMiz" to give Miz a rub I think they've been kind of doing the "intense midcard feud" stuff with the tag titles. The Shield were and are a huge focus, but they are essentially the upper midcard workhorses. The angle with the Rhodes Bros. was great and intense, but it was treated as a semi-main event, not THE main event. They've put a lot of focus and push behind the Usos and their feud with the Outlaws, and again, it's solidly in the mid-card.

Yeah. Sometimes I wonder if people actually pay attention to WWE tv or really just skim most of it over, because complaints about how the Christian-Sheamus feud is horribly booked don't ring true with me at all. They aren't "wrestling for no reason". I think the feud has been very well booked, step by step, and they've been having excellent matches. I've seen complaints to the tune of "Sheamus wins every match"....well, YEAH, which is why Christian keeps attacking and cheapshotting him and getting progressively angrier and angrier. When Christian DOES finally win he's going to do it in the shitheeliest way possible and brag about it endlessly. Which will be great.

Does a character like Bray really need explicit motivation? He's a delusional megalomaniac.

Could not disagree more. "reality" in terms of this character doesn't matter, because he's completely divorced from reality. He's a crazy lunatic. Whether you believe in the character or not, it doesn't matter, because HE believes in it. He's crazy. That's the gimmick. I think the Wyatts have been booked pretty flawlessly overall. Bray cuts a great promo and he's starting to show some really good skills in the ring. I was actually a Husky Harris fan, thought he showed a ton of potential when he actually got to wrestle, so I'm not surprised he's become so good. He's still very young too. Definitely a guy and character they can build around for the next decade. And you know, yeah it's a little cartoonish gimmick wise, but it's also pretty edgy. Perfect "monster" for modern WWE which is primarily marketed to kids. I grew up watching cartoony WWF, and I like that they have a "cartoon" gimmick like this peppered in with the "real" wrestlers. I'd make the comparison to Umaga, a gimmick that got destroyed by "smart" fans at the start until people realized he was a great wrestler and totally owning the role. I think the same will hold true with Bray, and even the people who hate "cartoon gimmicks" will come around Also, I've been pleasantly surprised by both Rowan and Harper as workers. Rowan had the knock of being a useless stiff, and he isn't at all. He's very good in his role and the matches booked to keep him in the pocket. I've also noticed steady improvement from him, and could be a Kane type that develops into a really solid worker over time. Harper I thought looked bad the first few months, but something clicked with him and now he's fantastic. The two 6 mans with The Shield are IMO the best WWE matches of the year so far, and the Wyatts more than held up their ends in the work department

The 10 punch in the corner never bothered me or made me think "this is fake" Guy has his opponent "on the ropes" so to speak and decides, "hey, this guy is almost done" gets some extra leverage and rains down punches The spot isn't always executed to perfection, so I can get how it seems like a cliche spot, and sometimes guys will use it just to get the crowd engaged in the match and counting along with the punches, but in theory it's not a bad spot at all my favorite variations are when the guy is punching and gets tossed off, bumps, and jumps back into punching. I think Ziggler used to do that, and I'm sure HBK did it a few times. I also liked Undertaker reversing the punches into a Snake Eyes or Last Ride. Or a guy getting punched repeatedly in the corner and reversing with a nut shot. All that stuff gets huge pops. So there are interesting ways to work the spot without it feeling rote

See, I haven't bought for a second the "mania midcard" "he's going to work Sheamus" stuff. I don't know if this is Meltzer being in on the work or being worked himself, but it never passed the smell test with me And as far as the Rumble goes, it was pretty explicit that he wasn't in the match, which made the crowd shitting on it even funnier

Funny you should say that, because I knew as soon as they started heating up Benoit summer of 03 what the end game of the push was. It was so obvious months and months ahead that he was going to win the Rumble and win the title at Mania. I expected it to be him against Lesnar, but the end result was the same I'm not going to claim clairvoyance like Bix, but they've been pushing the hell out of Bryan for a long time now. It was obvious, to me anyway, exactly how things would go down at SummerSlam with him beating Cena and Orton cashing in. You had to be blind to not see that coming. Yet internet people bitched and moaned when it happened. There's been obvious longterm planning and direction with Bryan, and I just laugh at the people who say "Bryan's being berried!" and all those sorts of comments. WWE has been manipulating and trolling the audience with him quite a bit, and while not every minor detail of the story has been intended, the endgame goal with him is the same as it was from the start Maybe I'm completely wrong on that, but I don't think I am. People complained when they did the Big Show-Orton stuff and I was like, "dudes, it's so obvious this is a placeholder kill time deal because they can't run Bryan-Orton for 8 months". Then people complained about Bryan-Wyatt and it was like, "seriously, they're killing time here, give it a break" I lose patience with folks tbh. So many complainers that don't see the big picture

That "various parts" is pretty vague. I assume he means US, Canada, Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands were all priced differently. I don't think WWF could have gotten away with pricing differently regionally in the states, but I guess it's possible. Priced differently on different cable systems? Out of curiosity, what other countries did WWE have PPV on at this point in time?

Billy Robinson is an all time great wrestler. Wish there was more footage of him RIP

As long as the crowd is as strong for Bryan as they are I don't think HHH/Steph can say anything that would "bury" him no matter what it is they actually say. It's been trolling from day 1, and now they're all just enjoying it and playing off of the crowd. Either of them can say anything and Bryan can smirk and look out into the audience and they will be in the palm of his hand. And he's not even a good or great promo guy IMO. His talking is over because of how geniune he is, but he doesn't have great mic skills, he just has authentic charisma

I could see Michelle McCool going in just because to be fair to her, I thought she was a way better performer than a lot of internet fans wanted to give her credit for. LayCool was a great pairing. I know people would claim it was the WWE ripoff of "The Beautiful People" in TNA, but out of the 4 of those girls Michelle was the best wrestler, and I'd put Layla and Velvet neck and neck in the hotness department I always thought Michelle was a very hard worker, and naturally athletic, and the "she's sleeping her way to the top" comments were very unwarranted. That girl would take DDT bumps right on her head, sell like crazy.....do hilarious things in the ring......do lucha dives.....she was good

I think if Sable wants to go in she'll go in. She may not want to. Or she might want to wait a while. She has kept a very low profile in recent years since marrying Brock and having a child with him. She doesn't seem to have any interest in the spotlight now. Vince would put her on tv in a second if she wanted to do so. They seem to be on great terms with Brock and Heyman, so yeah, Sable can go back on their TV any time she wants I think Lauper is probably going in this year and they're holding off for her to be the big celeb nomination It would be cool if Luna Vachon went in, but I think if they were going to do that they would have nominated the entire Vachon family at the same time. I believe Mad Dog is in, but I don't think Vivvian is

I don't think with all the layers of people in the company that they would decide on having HHH pin Bryan HHH isn't a dumb guy. He knows that that finish would hurt him more than anything. He'll put Bryan over in clean fashion, I would think. If he didn't the live crowds would revolt and completely turn on him. He's doing a good job in this "new Vince McMahon role" in my opinion, and Vince never had a problem putting guys over in matches This seems like a total setup for Bryan to hit the flying knee on HHH, and maybe make both Steph and HHH tap out for good measure. I'd be surprised if it didn't happen. They seem completely aware that they need to give the crowd a big payoff for Bryan at WM now. I've been saying for a while now that they are trolling and manipulating the crowds re: Bryan, the shit eating grins on Steph and HHH's faces tonight only further convinced me of that All of that said, I can't completely put it past them to overstep and thing they can string all of this along a bit further. It's possible. I don't believe it's likely, but it's possible. And that makes this whole thing fun and interesting to me. So kudos to WWE on all of this

I'm glad he didn't come back That show was pretty surreal to watch. It was very well booked by WWE. They gave that crowd the best show they possibly could. Probably the best booked RAW in a while. A tag title change.....another great Shield-Wyatts match with a huge angle involving Rollins and great performaces from all of the Shield guys.....Daniel Bryan vs. Batista on free tv with a great angle.....what more can the crowd want? They are completely on top of and aware of the crowd reactions right now. Hopefully the audience will stop chanting for Punk now. I thought Bryan and HHH and Cena all played off of the crowd really well Now, if they held Punk off of the Chicago show to troll the audience further, I will give them even bigger props, because that would be an epic level of trolling the audience

It was also on a basic cable network (UPN) that was in many more homes than USA. Network tv is still a big deal, but much bigger a decade ago. Personally depending on where I live and what the options are I always subscribe to the most basic of cable packages, and as long as I have PBS, CSPAN and local channels I'm happy. At the moment I'd have to upgrade several tiers just to get SyFy or Spike TV. I don't even get ESPN. I can get Main Event on ION or ROH on a CW or something if it's not pre-empted by high school sports

fwiw the 'cm funk' handle was more about tribute to Terry Funk and my love of funk music. I just thought it was a funny play on words. The last year or so of Punk is making me regret the name

What does that matter really? WWE has proven that they can sell merch with anyone. Without Punk someone else will sell the merch. I know Punk is popular, but really

If I was Vince/HHH/Steph I'd thank Punk for the good times and tell him to just stay home. They don't need him. He's going to be miserable either way. You're going to pay him more to be miserable for a few more months? Why bother? There are a ton of guys who genuinely want to be there. The WWE network and how it will affect pay is definitely a big issue for everyone. I can't believe they're going to get away without paying royalties to everyone for all of the footage used, and I'm kind of amazed that they were able to more or less break all of their contracts in this process. But I don't buy this "Punk is a martyr" bs for a second. Whatever Punk wants to claim, he's in it for himself, and if he's coming back for a few months for a big payday he's a total hypocrite. The "woe is me" act worked for him for a long time, but he's basically 1A or 1B in the company now. A top guy who's going to walk out of the company is not a guy I would put any trust in going further. Austin on his podcast repeatedly says that "taking the ball and going home" was one of the worst decisions he ever made, and he regrets how unproffesional and unfair to everyone else to do. If Punk really cared as much as he claims to he would reject every offer WWE tries to make to him and go schedule a bunch of public interviews and rant about the need for a union and the complete bs the "independant contractor" deal is. But, he signed that contract and he has no problem accepting Vince McMahon's money You know every cable news channel around would put him on tv to do so, but he's all talk. His passive agressive interveiws haven't led to change, it's led to his wallet

If they did that with Batista it would be perfect, and that would actually be a great setup to Punk returning later in the show and attacking Batista If Punk is back for WM and you obviously have to put him in a big match, throw him in with Orton and Batista for a triple threat main event. Batista wins, crowd boos, then out comes Bryan to save the day after already beating HHH earlier I think booking it like that would make everyone happy. Punk can take off after the show, Batista is already going full steam heel so whatever dreams they had about him being champ out of WM I don't know, and Bryan gives the crowd what they came to see. Put the belt back on Batista in a few months, it doesn't matter. But they have to put the belt on Bryan if they want to stop the crowd from hijacking shows. If they don't give this WM crowd what they want I think people may finally say "fuck this". I'd say that, and I've been defending WWE on the way they've booked Bryan since day 1

I never bother with "tech support" because you know that 99% of the time it's outsourced. Going back to Microsoft in the 90's and almost every attempt at tech support I've had over the years it's generally been a huge waste of time. I had issues signing up for the network, and the same VOD problems everyone was having, but at no point did I consider calling "tech support" because I knew it would be a complete runaround. Going on the internet and places like here and DVDVR told me everything I needed to know

Honestly, and obviously I've been a Punk fan over the years, I have no interest in him coming back, no interest in him being in a big spot at WM.... I would like to see the Chicago crowd boo the hell out of him and reject him like they've been rejecting Batista, but obviously that won't happen I've just seen enough of his shitty attitude and shoddy performances recently that he's reached "go away" levels of heat with me. And he did, and I was glad for that. And now he's back already? The act is getting tired Punk. Go home and take a long break, please.