sek69

I was just taking a shot at Rock's not so illustrious movie legacy, I think it's pretty clear they booked that segment to finally show Cena getting one up in a promo battle after every other encounter led to him getting completely owned. Consider last week they finally got the men to cheer him with the Eve stuff, and that the plan is to do their damnedest to have a 50/50 split crowd at Mania (or failing that at least try to not have Cena get completely booed out of the building). Showing him being able to go toe to toe on the mic without being made to look like a complete goober was a good thing.

The comment about promo notes on the wrist seemed kind of unscripted, both from a "why would you script him to say that" standpoint and Rock kind of reacted like he wasn't expecting it. I mean, we all know Rock's not *that* good of an actor. /rimshot

I think the point of bringing it up is that other than Flair, no one else on the level Rock was at would even do a slip-on-a-banana-peel job to a guy like Helms.

Counterpoint: the NHL is doing the Winter Classic in Michigan Stadium and will probably draw 100,000 easy on January 1rst (they've got that many people for college hockey before, no reason they won't get that many here too).

The amount of lapsed Attitude Era fans shouldn't be underestimated. I'm not saying they're going to double last year's buys but it really shouldn't shock people if it comes in significantly higher. The problem is that they won't keep any of them around once they tune in Raw and see dumb shit like Zack the human Wile E. Coyote.

I don't know if its all about upstaging the NFL, MetLife Stadium has a football capacity of 82,500. Vince might want a new kayfabed attendance record to hype since WM3 might as well have been a million years ago to most of the current audience.

I'm kind of surprised how the Rey issue kind of floated by without a lot of fuss when it happened. Looking back, I wonder how much of them wanting to stick it to him for having the nerve to actually make demands at contract renewal time instead of towing the "gee, it's just nice to be part of the WWE Universe" line played into them booking him in matches after his knee was blown. It wasn't like they were doing quickie deals with him either, it was as if they expected his full complement of spots when the guy was clearly working on one leg. He's cut family vacations short when asked, came back early from needed recovery breaks when asked, moved merch and ratings better than anyone not named Cena in the last decade or so, yet as soon as he tries to cash in some of his chips and ask for the same considerations other guys who've moved the dial like he does it's suddenly "fuck this ungrateful bastard". I wonder if it's because despite all he's done for the company, deep down he's still a WCW guy to Vince (I doubt he remembers Rey was in ECW first)?

Funny how 2012 Warrior looks like 80s Sting when he has his facepaint on, and 2012 Sting looks like 80s Warrior when he rants like a loon on Impact.

I hope Dave told him "I love you" before kicking him in the face.

I just love the comments from people who don't believe Punk, because to them wrestling = steroids no matter what.

I'm wondering how they're going to do a Hell in a Cell in an outdoor environment. Normally when there is a cage of some sorts they have it hanging from the ceiling until the match.

I think after wrapping up the Kane stuff they realized they need to end the Zack/Eve stuff too. Well they didn't need to, but they sure put a bow on it. Also WO is reporting Wade has a dislocated elbow, which I guess is better than a broken arm but doesn't sound like it's much fun either.

To the point of ending the segment by calling Eve a "scandalous bitch" and informing her that he's disease free and intends to stay that way. Considering the show cold-opened with her explaining to the Bellas like an idiot her plan was to basically be a gold digger with Cena, it's not quite as bad in context (since it's basically a heel being foiled and getting their comeuppance), but the fact that it happened literally minutes after her heel turn made it come off like Trish barking like a dog in the "let's humiliate a woman" department.

That and right after the audio came back, Lawler was doing the "keep calm but this is serious shit" voice on commentary suggesting someone needs to get down here fast.

I thought Kofi was trying to do one of his wacky Spiderman spots to avoid elimination, but then he crashed into the wall looking like my mom's cat when he tries to make a turn while running on linoleum.

Jesus, the latest WO.com update is saying damn near everyone in the match got hurt:

The closing segment was a battle royal to determine who would face Punk for the WWE title. Big Show press slammed Ziggler out of the ring, Wade and Truth tried to catch him, and it didn't end well to say the least. Ziggler was tossed too hard and landed half caught/half face first on the announce desk which caused him to bend at a sick looking angle. Truth was down for a while (he may have just been selling) and Wade looked like he broke his arm because the entire WWE medical team and the rest of the ref crew were out working on him the rest of the match. It messed up the angle they were trying to tell because it looked weird seeing all these guys working on Wade while they were trying to sell Jericho-Punk, and when they had their end of show staredown, the crowd was doing the "give the guy who got hurt a cheer for moving" pop to Wade who was walking off under his own power with what looked like a air cast running the length of his arm.

Wow, that opening segment on Raw with Cena and Eve probably just ensured Linda's not winning this election either.

Not to mention it would be the closest modern wrestling could get to the "heels had to fist fight their way out of the arena" level heat. Of course it also just occurred to me that considering their own history, WWE might not see anything wrong with Chris Brown.

So CM Punk tweeted a few days ago about wanting to curb stomp Chris Brown and offering his services if Brown wanted to fight someone who can defend themselves (Chris Brown famously battered Rhianna while they were dating a while back and his prominent place at the Grammys this year rubbed a lot of people the wrong way). Brown's response upon hearing he was called out by a pro wrestler guy was to call CM Punk a roid abuser who's junk is to small to please a woman. Not only is that hilarious for obvious reasons, I bet WWE will freak out and make Punk drop it despite A: constantly whoring for mainstream attention and B: the fact that the vast majority of people agree with Punk on this.

I'll admit, when I was watching the promo on Raw last week and Shawn had that line about HHH "marrying that chick" I immediately thought of the HHH and Shawn as a couple thread that (I think it was) Kevin Cook posted way back then that was in the "best things ever on the internet" thread a while back.

Wasn't the deal with Sean O'Haire that they were punishing him because Piper (who he was inexplicably teamed with after the awesome vignettes before his debut) went on some show and bashed Vince/WWE?

I see it more as Vince is Steve Jobs in the mid 80s where he owned part of the company but he's such an asshole the board voted him out of any position of power. So instead of leaving to create Pixar, Vince is staying around to deliver messages for the board which is really the most ridiculous part of the kayfabe WWE power structure. To think that the TV character Mr. McMahon would be reduced to playing messenger boy is more of a suspension of disbelief fail than anything else. What's weird is that they seem to be booking HHH as taking over Linda's role more than Vince. It was always told on TV that she ran the business end while Vince ran the TV shows/matchmaking. Now with all this "good for business" talk from Hunter it's as if that's the role he's being slotted for and he won't be a major TV character when the time comes where "all of this is his".

Just to put a cap on the Kevin Cook deal: As I remember it going down he was starting to rub some people the wrong way which led to an admin at the board he was mainly posting at sharing the IM logs of him somewhat clumsily hitting on a girl, which pretty much broke his gimmick of being a suave motherfucker on the internet. Also prior to that there was a deal where he would constantly reappear with new usernames, claiming he would always forget his password for the prior one. I know for a fact he reappeared at least once after the IM incident, but he was toned way down and more or less went away again after some people started putting 2 and 2 together and asked if he was Cook. I may be forgetting some parts, but that was the gist of what went down.

It's funny, on the last WOL there was a comment by Dave where he stated he thinks the "We All Hate You" chant was a work. As if somehow WWE thought things out to the point they would put plants in the crowd to get worked chants going on a show that is rewritten several times a week.