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Right now Averno is thinking "son of a BITCH"....

That Christian/Orton finish was quite a sight. I don't think I've ever seen a crowd pop so loud for someone getting kicked in the balls before.

Punk already more or less buried the Cena is fired stipulation in the RAW promo last week. Not to mention that Cena has been all but established as the third wheel in this angle anyway. Also, my buddy texted me (I work Sundays so I didn't get to watch) that Sin Cara looked to have gotten hurt. Sheamus powerbombed him on a ladder to take him out of the MITB match and Sin Cara did the full out Terry Funk seizure sell job.

Also I think the line where Punk snapped at Vince that he doesn't know how to make stars in 2011 was designed to make anyone who ever was on Dave Lagana's podcast jizz in their pants.

Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that. If I didn't know better I'd think WWE was trying to imply Punk was getting to Cena and in the process made Cena "break character" if you will and let his accent slip back in (since they made a big deal of mentioning Cena was from Boston and in WWE Land everyone speaks in the broad brush accent of their hometown). Instead it came across as Andy Samberg's Wahlberg impression. I was waiting for Cena to tell Punk to say hi to his mother for him.

No, I think they thought the guys they already had on the roster would be able to fill the role. After the disaster with Chavo, they just asked him who they should bring in.

Saw this listed on cubsfan's site as part of the results from the latest AAA TV taping: That amused me, considering all the hand-wringing over "LayCool calls Mickie fat" from a while back.

To WWE's credit, they seemed to realize that as well, hence Averno coming in shortly.

You want to talk about announcers burying guys, Piper's your guy. There's the famous Saba Simba moment (sure it was Wrestlecrap, but still...) and it still bothers me to watch Undertaker debut at Survivor Series and listen to Piper nearly derail the whole gimmick trying to get his comedy in.

Also a point to defend Gorilla (or any 80s WWF commentator really), you have to remember they were stuck calling TONS of shitty jobber vs jobber type matches where it would be extremely difficult not to bury the whole thing after the second or third 5 minute chinlock/headlock spot.

Personally, I thought having the angle turn towards wanting to believe he was suddenly close personal friends with Saddam made it veer into bullshit land for me. Not because it was "too real", quite the opposite, it was too fake to believe. Especially since they made no attempt to hide that his other new ally was the Iron Shiek (I guess you really can't repackage him, but still...) who was so identified with Iran and everyone knew Iraq and Iran were enemies. That struck me as even more bullshit than Sarge becoming an Iraqi sympathizer. I guess they were just banking on most wrestling fans believing all Middle Easterners are the same.

Today's dose of irony: Punk getting heat for getting into a verbal fight with a ringside fan in Australia and calling him a homo. Meanwhile he shaved his beard and kept the mustache that along with his current hairstyle makes him look a lot like Freddie Mercury circa 1984.

It's a shame, I was really getting into AAA. It's like 90s ECW and the midcard of Nitro had a weird mutant baby.

I just find it odd that a lot of people hate Gorilla for putting himself over or shitting on matches, but Jesse did it a lot to the faces in matches he called. There would be times where he would go on a rant that would bring the commentary to a halt complaining about something a face did, or bitching at the face announcer for not getting upset when a face cheated like they do when a heel does. The fact that he was right almost all the time not only made the announcer he was calling out look like a bitch, it made the face look like an asshole for cheating and getting away with it (and to a lesser degree the ref too, I suppose). Don't get me wrong, Jesse is my favorite WWF announcer ever (I marked out when he and Vince called a match on Raw a couple years ago) but he seems to do the same stuff everyone hates Gorilla for doing.

Actually cubsfan may have just posted the answer on his blog. Apparently Galavision wants all HD programming which CMLL offers and AAA does not.

I guess this is a question for KrisZ, but did AAA lose their TV deal? I figured they were being pre-empted for the Gold Cup soccer tournament, but that ended and the show never came back on.

Harley looked way more aged at 40 than any of those other guys. He made an appearance on Saturday Night right before showing up in the WWF when he would have been around 43, and he looked at least 10-15 years older than he was. Not sure if it was from his ring style, or living hard out of the ring (or a combination of both).

Didn't Tony leave for the WWF because he was expecting to get some production job that went (I think) to Jim Ross? Either way, he just didn't fit in with their style at all. Vince likes his announcers to be more of an in your face type, Tony's approach came off like a librarian at a metal concert. As far as his style goes, I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it probably because he was the voice of the first wrestling show I watched on a regular basis. He always cracked me up as the put-upon host of the show trying to maintain a serious tone while David Crockett was marking out like a five year old, then in interview segments it seemed Flair and Cornette would have a weekly contest to get him to crack up on camera. I agree that once Hogan and Friends came in to WCW, you could see Tony no longer gave a shit anymore. He spent over a decade as a Serious Wrestling Announcer as contrast to those wacky WWF guys, and now the king of those wacky guys was in his company and he clearly wasn't enjoying having to put the guy over. That's why the end of Bash of the Beach is one of his all time great moments, you get the impression he finally got the chance to say on air what he'd been saying mentally since 1994. I always wonder why no other company ever brought him back other than that awful "shoot" promo he did in TNA. He must have soured on the business, since I can't imagine being a small market sports radio host/minor league baseball commentator are going to get a guy lots of disposable income.

what was the deal here? He said that Punk was "considered dangerous around the women" without any analysis, qualification, or objection. Gonna go out on a limb and guess Punk probably earned some enemies since he's long been known to have a list of "acquaintances" that reads like a who's who of female indy pro wrestlers. Plus it's also known that WWE has a slotting system where it's not considered kosher to fuck above your paygrade. Mix in the high-school like culture of pettiness and I wouldn't be surprised if someone was mad Punk took a run at a Diva that another one of the boys had eyes on. All it takes is someone to blind item it to the sheets that Punk is "dangerous" around women, and then it gets repeated as fact even if it gets corrected later like the "Punk got punished for not following the dress code" story. I'm sure something like that is the reason. Someone at that one board should ask Byron Alvarro to issue a long overdue retraction and apologize to Punk. Bix, do you and Alvarez have legit heat over something?

what was the deal here? He said that Punk was "considered dangerous around the women" without any analysis, qualification, or objection. Gonna go out on a limb and guess Punk probably earned some enemies since he's long been known to have a list of "acquaintances" that reads like a who's who of female indy pro wrestlers. Plus it's also known that WWE has a slotting system where it's not considered kosher to fuck above your paygrade. Mix in the high-school like culture of pettiness and I wouldn't be surprised if someone was mad Punk took a run at a Diva that another one of the boys had eyes on. All it takes is someone to blind item it to the sheets that Punk is "dangerous" around women, and then it gets repeated as fact even if it gets corrected later like the "Punk got punished for not following the dress code" story.

In wrestling it's all about what you're pushed as. Chief Jay Strongbow was actually Italian, Billy White Wolf was from Iraq, and Eddy and Rey (in WCW at least) were pushed as being Mexican by nationality when both were born in the US. Rock is kind of an anomaly. They obviously acknowledge his father but most of the time the Samoan part of his heritage was played up. When they interview his family it's always his mom (and his grandmother when she was alive), when's the last time anyone heard from Rocky Johnson? Other than his HOF induction (which in retrospect seems like it was only done to get Rock to come back for an appearance), they barely even mention him. They always mention his connection to the great Samoan dynasty when in truth Chief Peter isn't even a direct relation to the Anoai family, only "blood brothers". I guess my point that of course Rock is black ethnically, but in the scope of WWE he seemed to be pushed more as part of the Samoan legacy of wrestling, especially when he got the tribal tattoos which they compared to his grandfather's.

It's probably best to wait to see what it looks like on air, but I read it more as giving Cena extra motivation to make sure Punk doesn't leave with the belt since it was Cena going to bat for him to Vince. That wouldn't necessarily mean the focus was off of Punk.

The interesting thing about Punk's promo compared to the other two famous worked shoots is how personal this one is. The other two were more or less "sports entertainment sucks, wrestling 4 life", while Punk was calling the head of talent relations a douchebag and referring to Vince's idiot daughter and doofus son in law. Not to mention you have an actual wrestler doing the promo instead of an announcer or in Heyman's case an announcer/former promoter. All three of course were designed to perk the interest of the longtime fans who feel the current product no longer speaks to them, but there was something about Punk more or less calmly stating that he knows that WWE is all bullshit that seemed more genuine than Styles or Heyman screaming over stuff. The spoilers for the second show weren't too bad. I mean, if we're going to go on the assumption that the angle is that Punk's promo was a shoot, then of course Vince/WWE would suspend him since that's what you'd expect the "real" reaction to be. I don't like the addition of the extra stipulation on Cena, but considering I don't expect it to come into play it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

The best part of that promo may have been him wearing a Stone Cold shirt while doing it.

Giving someone the Benoit treatment as part of an angle is fucking fantastic (not being sarcastic here). They should start showing clips from previous RAWs and have the audio mute when anyone says "CM Punk".