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Pro Wrestling

WWE Closed My Mind Towards Professional Wrestling

I didn’t truly realize this until a few days ago, but WWE over the years successfully had made me think that it was the true, elite brand of professional wrestling. Everything else was the minor leagues (other than WCW for a few years in the 90s). Extreme Championship Wrestling, Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Xtreme Pro Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling, even TNA in its earlier years were all looked upon as inferior. So what if CM Punk was already a super hot heel in Ring of Honor, or that Bryan Danielson was potentially better than Kurt Angle. Did it matter that AJ Styles could probably work circles around anyone in WWE in 2003? What about Christopher Daniels? I never appreciated Tyler Black or Chris Hero. Japan was another story as no one went from there to WWE, and those who did were usually WWE castoffs to begin with. I had high hopes for Tensai after rave reviews of his Japanese run…and he proceeded to become a joke character within a year.

WWE did this to me early in my fandom. As a kid ECW was pretty much the coolest thing around. I wondered how Taz, Sabu, Rob Van Dam and all would fair in a WWF ring. Raven did okay for himself in WCW in 1998. Not great, but he wasn’t a joke or anything, so there was promise from my viewpoint. And the WWF killed that for me with Taz. When Taz showed up at the 2000 Royal Rumble I was all-in on him being a major star, fighting the likes of HHH, Rock and when he came back, Stone Cold. And he wasn’t even close. Two months later he’s fighting in the Hardcore Battle Royal at Wrestlemania. The MAN for ECW was just a lower-card guy in the WWF. Interestingly enough, The Dudley Boyz shook this and became one of the top teams in the WWF, but even then I attributed their success to them changing their attire and acting more “WWF like”, even if that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

At some point I decided that it’s obvious these guys didn’t have what it took to make it in the WWF. Even Raven had floundered in his WWF run. Tajiri, who I remembered fighting Taz for the ECW World Title at Heatwave ’99, became a comedy character who was a Cruiserweight mainstay. Only Rob Van Dam made a huge impact, but then again I always thought RVD was ahead of others in ECW. At some point I just said to myself that anyone outside WWE was probably inferior to anyone in WWE. There were exceptions…but even those exceptions didn’t have me thinking much. Yeah, AJ Styles was clearly great, but would he even go above the Cruiserweight Title in WWE? Same goes for Daniels. Samoa Joe seemed like a bad ass, but when there were rumors he was going to fight John Cena in WWE in the gimmick given to Umaga I just assumed Cena was going over him. And while CM Punk made his way to WWE, I didn’t think much of him or his character until 2009 and the Straight Edge Society. Even when he surprisingly won the World Title in 2008, he didn’t feel like a main eventer (didn’t help that WWE didn’t treat him like one either). There were other misfires along the way: Paul London, Brian Kendrick, Colt Cabana as Scotty Bowman. The indies were the indies and that was that.

CM Punk got the ball rolling for sure in 2011. But even then he was pretty much a WWE guy to me. Still, when he and Danielson ended up holding the World Titles at the same time in early 2012 I felt that perhaps someone like AJ Styles could have done this at one time (not like, five years later, no way). But when WWE rolled out NXT, I didn’t watch it. I’ve been burned too many times in the past. It didn’t help that Adrian Neville, who was also an Internet Wrestling Community darling at one time as Pac, hasn’t really gained much traction. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens though has helped change the perception, and the Finn Balor push to the Universal title was also helping, but my perception ended up completely changed at Takeover: Brooklyn II.

Austin Aries was a former TNA World Champion and a stereotypical guy who I’d peg for not getting anywhere in WWE. He looked like a star. Bobby Roode I’ve never cared about once, and he GLORIOUSLY looked like a star. And then, the moment Shinsuke Nakamura made his entrance for his NXT Title match against the aforementioned Samoa Joe, I asked myself…

What the hell have I been missing all these years?

Pro Wrestling

Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker: Five Reasons Why Each Should Win

Despite the fact that their Wrestlemania XXX match did not live up to the hype (well, the match itself didn’t, but the finish absolutely did), tonight’s Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker match at Summerslam has given the event a supercard feel. With Jon Stewart hosting (sure beats The Miz from a couple years ago), Stephen Amell in a match and our big name main event, Summerslam feels closer to Wrestlemania than it does to the rest of the WWE Network Special Schedule. Unlike Wrestlemania XXX, were it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that Undertaker was beating Brock (which of course led to the shock value of the finish), this year’s encounter can go either way. Here now are five reasons on why each competitor  should win tonight.

Five Reasons Brock Lesnar Should Win at Summerslam

  1. Brock Lesnar as a main attraction requires him to be an invincible monster.

Interestingly, by the time Taker and Lesnar locked up at Mania XXX, Brock Lesnar has lost most of his appeal as a major attraction. He will still very over, but it wasn’t the same as two years prior when he first showed up and confronted John Cena. He had suffered a couple of losses (to Cena and Triple H) and no one gave him a chance against the legendary Streak. When Lesnar ended the streak…a brilliant booking decision…it put him back in that special attraction slot. WWE smartly booked him to be an unstoppable monster from that point forward. He destroyed Cena. Cena seemingly almost got him back, but Lesnar still left with the title. He beat both Cena and Seth Rollins. He looked like a monster even as Roman Reigns fought him to a draw, and lost his title without being pinned. He destroyed Champ Rollins before Taker returned. All of this gets added to the numerous segments where Lesnar wrecked everyone and everything (like the RAW after Mania). Losing to the Undertaker undoes most of this, and there is still a lot of money left in the Brock Lesnar is a monster story.

  1. Brock Lesnar needs the win more than Undertaker.

With Wrestlemania XXXII on the horizon and WWE looking to break all kinds of attendance records, Brock Lesnar needs to be at the peak of his drawing power. There’s no Streak to conquer in the future to re-establish Lesnar as a special attraction. We can’t be wasting losses on the Undertaker.

  1. A loss means Lesnar vs. Undertaker III.

A route that WWE should not take is Lesnar-Taker III at Wrestlemania XXXII. But if Lesnar loses here, we probably need a rubber match between the two, and to be honest that’s not the best match possible for Mania. Really, the only Taker match out there that needs to happen is against Sting. Let Lesnar move on. It might be time to throw all the money in the world at The Rock for Lesnar vs. Rock…unless Vince thinks he is getting Stone Cold or HBK.

  1. Brock Lesnar just signed a new WWE contract.

As a result, there is no reason for WWE to not get the maximum out of Lesnar’s drawing power. If WWE resigned Lesnar just to lose to Undertaker and whomever, it’ll be a colossal waste. Someone beating Brock Lesnar will give a huge rub (one that almost went to Roman Reigns). WWE would be smart to maximize that.

  1. It’s not believable that Brock Lesnar would lose to Undertaker.

It would be one thing if this was in his prime Undertaker, but this is old man Undertaker and UFC ass kicker Brock Lesnar. After what happened at Wrestlemania XXX, would anyone buy the Undertaker still pulling the John Wayne and taking down the big bad guy at this point?

Five Reasons The Undertaker Should Win at Summerslam

  1. Undertaker needs momentum for his retirement match at Wrestlemania XXXII.

Like Lesnar, we don’t want to lose the specialness of Undertaker’s draw and character. A lot of that was taken away at Wrestlemania XXX when he lost the Streak. A lot of people didn’t care about Taker beating Bray Wyatt. If he loses again, will anyone really care about him come Wrestlemania XXXII?

  1. Undertaker has never beaten Brock Lesnar in a 1 vs. 1 PPV Match.

Undertaker currently sports a 0-3-1 record against Lesnar in PPV Matches (losses at No Mercy ’02, No Mercy ’03 and Mania XXX. The lone draw was at Unforgiven ’02). To complete his legacy, a win over Lesnar may be necessary.

  1. Undertaker’s Last Non-Wrestlemania PPV win was five and a half years ago.

The last time Undertaker won a PPV match that wasn’t a Wrestlemania? Royal Rumble 2010 against Rey Mysterio. How crazy is that? It’s also been nearly five years since he’s even wrestled on a non-Mania PPV. Wouldn’t it be disappointing for him to lose in his first Summerslam match since 2008?

  1. Undertaker needs to avenge his Wrestlemania XXX loss.

We all remember the aftermath of Taker vs. Lesnar at Mania XXX. Shocked fans. A concussed Undertaker slowly walking to the back. Like Cena when he came back on RAW after Lesnar destroyed him at Summerslam last year (and some kids felt that their hero was still alive), Undertaker’s fans need to see that the Deadman isn’t done. The fans need that closure.

  1. The Undertaker might not be as done as we think.

Raise your hand if you had the Undertaker wrestling at Summerslam this year. Who’s to say we aren’t getting a Survivor Series or Royal Rumble match this year leading up to the retirement match at Wrestlemania XXXII? Hell, who says he’s retiring at Wrestlemania XXXII? He’s “only” 50. Everyone saw how badly he was beat up at Wrestlemania XXX and assumed he was done. Well, when you get concussed, that’s how things go. He looked better at Wrestlemania XXXI against Wyatt. How do we know he doesn’t have five years left of this?

In the end, as much as I love the Undertaker…the smart business decision is to let Brock go over. He’s the big draw. People are going to watch Taker vs. Sting at Wrestlemania XXXII (or Cena, I guess) no matter what happens at Summerslam. Don’t screw up Lesnar again WWE.