cm funk

The peak of the Tanahasi love on that show was Mike already declaring him WOTY for 2014 and even Dave had to slow him down and say, "It's February" As far as Bryan's merch goes, I've bought one wrestling t-shirt in my entire life (Jerichoholic).....but I hear Dave and Alvarez harping on how terrible his merch is and I don't really see what's so terrible about it. I wouldn't buy any of it, but I wouldn't buy any of the shirts WWE makes. I think the maroon colour scheme works for Bryan, and those simple YES YES YES or NO NO NO shirts appear to have been big sellers based on how many of them you'd see in the crowd. And whoever said that talk about merchandise started because of CM Punk.....you can't be serious. Merchandise has been a talking point since the 80's. I'm sure if somebody wanted to bother going back through the Observer archives you would find lots of talk of guys who move merch. God, just in the attitude era, you don't think Dave was talking about DX and Austin moving merch? Or the nWo shirts? Or ECW shirts? The idea that nobody was aware of merch moving until CM Punk in 2011 is absolutely absurd

I haven't watched much of TNA in recent years. I've given up on that company several times, and then I'll tune back in and last a few weeks before I remember why I stopped watching it. Meltzer seems to think that RUSSO is back writing for them. I have no words to describe how sad and predictable that is. Dixie Carter is beyond clueless. How many times does Russo need to fail?

This place, Wrestling Classics and Kayfabe Memories have the most interesting topics and knowledgeable fans, IMO. DVDVR has become virtually unreadable to me with all the dumb trolling and petty arguments. There are some posters there with serious mental issues.

Then you're wrong. Have you watched his web interviews with Cole? He's been playing off the perception of him/trolling the smarks since the summer. It's amazing that some people still don't think he's consciously doing it.

Trump got them a ton of mainstream coverage that they weren't otherwise getting at that time. Not stuff that I watch....but E! News shows, Entertainment Tonight, Today Show and other morning shows, etc. etc. gossipy magazines, all that celebrity culture stuff....a lot of people watch that stuff. Even if Trump/McMahon wasn't the sole draw, which it wasn't, it was a draw, and just getting WWE and Mania out there with all that coverage had to help. Maybe people saw Michaels and Taker in the big matches along with Trump/McMahon and got interested. Whatever it was, the Trump/McMahon buildup deserves a ton of credit

Mania 19 was great, but I think there's a lot of factors involved in why it didn't draw. I think the main being that WWE business was absolutely dying at that point, and nothing was going to save it. Things really fell off a cliff in 02. 02-04 are the modern WWE 94-96 dark years.

Exactly. I've been a Billy Gunn defender for years, but Billy could never cut it as a singles wrestler. He bombed hard as KOTR and in PPV matches with Rock and Benoit. Dolph has had, dare I say it, some great single matches over the years. With Rey, Bryan, Cena, Del Rio, Orton and I'm sure many others. Guy can go. His problem is the half-assed ways he's been pushed over the years. The double turn with Del Rio was brilliantly executed and he was on the verge of being a huge babyface right then. Then he got the concussion, and they didn't like some stuff he said on twitter, so now he's a jobber. Go figure.

Darren Young to me is the prototypical "needs to be in a babyface tag" guy. He's a good FIP, and he's got a good babyface comeback. PTPer matches were always better when they were faces. I also like that they would switch up the expected structure of a big man/little man tag team match and Titus would often play FIP. With all these tags looking to break up around the same time hopefully they have some ideas for new teams in mind. There'll be the Usos, the Wyatts, Los Matadores, Ryback/Axel and 3MB left. I expect The Ascension to be one of the first post-WM callups. If they break up Real Americans I hope they keep Zeb with Swagger and give him a new partner. He's another guy who's always been a better tag guy than a single IMO.

I don't understand why they didn't push the PTPers more. They're both fairly entertaining and charismatic and have good chemistry. When they had a chance (usually on main event) they'd have good matches. After it came out that Darren Young was gay they got a nice little push for a bit which was shockingly reserved for WWE as they never mentioned that Young was gay, but it was clear that a lot of the crowd knew and it made them babyfaces. Then they would switch from heel or face from week to week which never made any sense and made them less over. I have a feeling this breakup will go the way of the Cryme Tyme split. It'll get them a ppv match (most likely, but then again they split Tons of Funk and they didn't get a PPV blowoff) then they'll both be forgotten about and flounder in the midcard. I don't know that Titus will be a good single, and he's pretty old to be getting a big push.

It was a different time, and Bryan isn't Austin or the Rock. McMahon cut promos on Austin calling him a filthy, vulgar drunkard redneck who had no business being the champion of his company. Surprise....those are the things people liked about him. They say Bryan is small and ugly and not face of the WWE material.....those are the things that appeal to people about Bryan. They play to their smart fan hardcore internet audience with guys like Bryan and Punk. I honestly think they believe that cutting down Bryan in promos for being a B+ and too short and too ugly etc. etc. is going to get him more over with that target audience. It makes him the underdog, the man of the people. And maybe it has, he's more over than ever. Or maybe it's misguided. But if you think HHH/Steph cut those promos to hurt him, you're being worked. They don't believe those things, the audience doesn't believe those things, it's part of the work.

Ryback's story is just mistake after mistake and missed opportunities and pretty much emblematic of WWE's booking problems and how tough it is for someone to get over the level that Punk or Bryan have. Ryback was going to need every bit of help from the booking and some lucky breaks and didn't get it. For the first few months his push was very forced and I didn't think he'd overcome the Goldberg chants. Then he actually got over, and when Cena got hurt they panicked (as they always do) and pushed him into a no win spot. He was being built up to win the IC or US title at the time and they just leapfrogged that to put him in with Punk. Then they book him into another no win situation because they don't want to beat The Shield, so Ryback never gets any revenge on them. Then they're bringing Jericho back at WM to put Ryback over, but they don't anticipate him being as over as he is as a babyface (again classic WWE) and they don't want him overshadowing Ryback. Jericho has gone on the record of how he'd been led to believe he'd wrestle Ryback all along and was not happy about being switched to get Fandango over. Then Ryback says some stuff in interviews that pisses management off, and he ends up jobbing to Mark Henry. Then he turns heel and loses to Cena several times. Destruction of his character was pretty much complete at this point and he was barely used on tv. He rebounded with the BIG GUY bully stuff but they've been treating him like a midcarder ever since. Supposedly Heyman and Punk came up with the idea of using him in their feud, WWE had no real plans for him

Bingo. Again, look at the way they pushed Austin as he was rising, or hell, look at the way they pushed Orton once it was obvious he was turning heel and afterward. Most heel champions are pussies and barely win their matches. Not Randy Orton. He beats faces clean in the middle. They're pushing Bryan, but not in with any real plan or momentum. Austin lost a lot, and it's one of the reasons he got so over. Hell, his most famous match, the one that "made" him, he lost clean via passing out in a pool of his own blood. It felt like he never beat Bret. He got rolled up and pinned by Owen in the Canadian Stampede tag. Pro Fight DB pegs him at a 58% winning % in his WWF career! Rock is even lower! The idea that to be a top guy or get a top push in WWE you have to win all the time is just wrong. And it's not like Bryan doesn't get big wins. He was the first guy to beat The Shield after they beat every star in the company, Cena included. He beats Orton or gets screwed every time. He beats Cena clean. But part of Bryan's appeal is that he's an underdog who constantly fighting from underneath. I don't want to see Daniel Bryan winning every match he's in, and I think if they booked him like that he'd be less over than he is right now. If Cena is Superman and Punk was Batman.....Bryan is Wolverine. Wolverine would lose battles all the time and he's one of the most over comic characters ever. He doesn't get hurt at all by losing to Bray Wyatt, because it was a great match. And it made Wyatt look like a million bucks. I just haven't really seen this mistreatment of Bryan that some people see. Has the booking been perfect? No, absolutely not, but it very rarely is. But there has been every indication for a while now that they see Bryan as a company ace. Not THE ace, because that will always be Cena until he hangs up his boots. That's just the way it is. But WWF/E has always had room for multiple aces. Not everyone can be Hogan or Cena.

Exactly. Marvel would let him write for them in a second. He has the capital and cult appeal to open up a punk rock club, a comic book shop, a pizza place etc. etc. and be successful at it. He can do a podcast. He can get tv/movie roles (something he's talked about wanting to do in the past). There's no shortage of ways for him to monetize himself outside of wrestling. Also, 11-13 were big money years for the guy. The long championship reign, PPV main events, main eventing house shows, the merchandise.....I'm thinking he doubled if not even tripled his downside. Plus the tour bus and WWE paying for his gas....that might not sound like a huge thing but with all the travel that adds up and it's something he didn't have to pay out of pocket that most of the roster does. As to why WWE would bother doing a work here, and what's the point of the work.....it got people talking. He was a top trend on twitter, yahoo, google and I'm sure a lot of other places. TMZ is reporting on it (which they love) and I'm sure other gossip outlets as well. Unfollowing him on twitter is totally something they would do to get the work over. I'm leaning towards the simple explanation that he's just totally burnt out and unhappy....it's not like you can't see that with your own eyes watching him the past year. But, I don't put it past WWE or him to work something like this either. As far as the WM plans....this is oddly a good thing if it puts Bryan in there with HHH. I had zero interest in seeing Punk-HHH again based on how their last program went. Yeah, Punk would probably have gone over, but what would that even do for him at this point? He's way beyond a win over HHH meaning anything. It would mean something for Bryan. I actually liked Alvarez's idea of putting Bryan into the WM title picture (I think he said 3 way with Orton and Batista), giving him the belt there, then having a livid HHH challenge him for the belt at the next PPV in Seattle in a "if you want something done right...." scenario, where Bryan then beats him. But if they do Bryan-HHH with a title shot for Bryan on the line at Mania that works too. Really Punk against HHH never made a ton of sense to me and felt shoehorned in late in the game. Bryan against HHH, HBK or Orton was the logical conclusion. The fact they were thinking about putting him against Sheamus of all people was WTF worthy

I think they put the belts on the Outlaws to transition to the Usos and are going to push the Usos hard this year as the aces of the tag division It is odd though how they seem to be breaking up all the teams they established over the past year at the same time. Rhodes Bros look to be breaking up to set up a Mania match. Shield is breaking up (or at least Reigns is leaving the group I think). Real Americans look to be broken up soon. I'm wondering what teams will be left to work with the Usos at this point

I'm saying this as a huge Punk fan (check the name)......I haven't been a fan of his work overall the last year or so. I think his offense has gotten to the point of being sloppy and unbelievable.....and often lazy....and he's ridiculously skinny at this point. He looks like he's about 6-1 and 185......like he hasn't lifted a weight in the last year....it's ridiculous. I thought the match with Taker at WM was good, I thought the match with Brock was good....the Heyman program turned very self indulgent and boring after they tried running with it month after month....and the blowoff at HIAC was really lame. Punk feels extremely played out and overexposed to me right now. I really think he needs to take that vacation he's been talking about for years now, but obviously WWE feels they need him around and they keep sweetening the pot

Hakushi worked with Bret when Bret was in the "special attraction" handpicking young talent to get over role. Diesel was the champ at the time.

Hunter has a great work ethic Hunter was/is reliable in the sense that he doesn't drink or do drugs (other than HGH/roids obviously) Hunter was in with the kliq, at a time when Vince was in love with HBK and Nash Hunter took his punishment for the MSG incident like a man, unfairly taking the brunt of it, and no complaining Hunter is very cunning politically Hunter is a huge fan of bodybuilding It's no real surprise to me that Vince made him his adopted son

Taker is a pretty bad dude in his own right. He seems to have an insanely high pain tolerance. There's been talk of how beat up his is physically going on 15 years or so now. He only wrestles once or twice a year anymore, but he goes out there and does crazy spots still, and wrestles long matches. I'm pretty sure he's ok with Brock tossing him around and stiffing the shit out of him, and wouldn't have it any other way. And I'm also sure that Brock is aware of Taker's age and physical condition and wouldn't be as reckless with him as he might be with someone else.

Swagger is actually, according to Meltzer and Jim Ross, a lifelong wrestling fan. Like, legit fan, huge mark, grew up reading PWI etc. etc. I think the "problem" with Swagger is that he's not cut out for singles wrestling. He's great in tags. He's great with a a manager. He plays off of others very well, but he can't carry the ball as a single. That's fine. Not everyone can. Every time he's in a tag team I'm entertained by him....every time they pair him with someone like Zeb or Jimmy Golden it's great.....even the ridiculous eagle mascot was great entertainment.....

My recollection of 99 is that they were determined to get HHH over as a main eventer. It didn't click initially, but they were doing everything in their power to push him to that level. They just threw everything at the wall with him hoping it would stick. It definitely felt like they were forcing the issue and wouldn't take no for an answer, and HHH was already over via DX and his feud with Rock and everything, but there was nothing organic about his push in 99. They decided they wanted to push him to the main event and spent all year doing so, way beyond his actual overness level. Vince went out of his way to push HHH, booked HHH to drug and rape his daughter, booked his daughter to turn heel on him, wrestled a PPV main event with Hunter.....booked Hunter to beat Cactus into retirement....put HHH over in the main event of WM....the first time a heel ever closed the show with a win..... It's kind of ridiculous in retrospect

I totally agreed with Alvarez on the discussion of Bryan. He's absolutely right that crowds are going to keep hijacking shows until Bryan gets the title. It's monkey see monkey do now, it's become a lot more than just wanting to see Bryan with the title. I don't even know how well Bryan with the belt would draw, but WWE audiences will not stop doing this. It's a credit to Bryan, and I think it's a credit to WWE also. And I refuse to believe that they are clueless to what is happening here. They've been trolling their audience hard, and it just makes Bryan more and more over

this is mid-00's smackdown stuff, where a lot of guys got time to do their thing. Being drafted to RAW in the mid 00's was basically death to anyone who was starting to get over on their own merits SD and Velocity had a ton of fun stuff in those days I think WWE appreciated Kendrick and Paul London, they gave them a long tag title reign and basically built the tag division around them (using them to get other teams over, while having the belts)....which was impressive. They're clearly both rebellious attitude wise and clashed with the WWE upper management, but it's not like they were unliked by the upper ranks Kid Kash in WWE was pretty great, I thought his work in that short time he was there was outstanding. He turned himself into this angry old bulldog crusier. Him and Noble were an awesome tag team, in their brief run

To the thread topic, I would have enjoyed Kenta in WWE back in like 05-07. He's pretty beat up at this point, and WWE pushing foreign talent is always dicey. I think of all the guys in Japan Okada has the best chance of getting a legit push in WWE. Ibushi would have a nice undercard spot and most likely last for a long time. Kenta....I don't see it. WWE really has a horrible track record when it comes to Japanese talent. Kaientai got a good push and Taka and Funaki lasted on the roster for years, but in the last decade there's been nothing

Harper has turned into a pretty awesome tag team worker for the style that WWE has going on. I really enjoy his stuff now, and I thought he was kinda shitty in the initial months the Wyatts were on tv. He's definitely found his groove. I also enjoy Rowan's work, and i think he's been pretty good in his role from the start.

On Ali, I could see them waiting until he passed to induct him if they could get his daughter to accept on his behalf. I'm assuming they've tried in the past and his people shot it down, and as noted he's in very rough shape now.