411Mania's Squared Circle News Report 05.16.09

Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 05.16.2009

Could Ric Flair come out of retirement? Will Rey Mysterio work the pay-per-view injured? How long will Kennedy last once he returns? The answers to these questions and more in the latest Squared Circle News Report!

Happy weekend everybody and welcome to the Squared Circle News Report. Your regular host Dustin James is out of action this week so you're lucky enough to have me filling in. Depending on your point of view, unfortunately I won't be following Dustin's traditional format and instead just discussing the news as it comes. Let's take a quick look at what's on the agenda;

- Ric Flair coming out of retirement
- Mr. Kennedy making a return
- Champion injured heading into Judgment Day
- Randy Orton matures
- Discussion of TNA vs. WWE, 2nd generation Superstars, WM25 main event and more!
- Judgment Day preview

So let's not waste any more time and instead get right to it!

Ric Flair Gets the Itch


In a recent interview, Ric Flair explicitly stated that he wanted to wrestle again, but also explained why he won't do it.

"I want to wrestle again. I watch (WWE) and I can still do better than 90 percent of the guys there. I weigh one less pound than the day I retired. I still work out really hard and I wrestle my kid (Reid) all the time. It's not like I haven't been in the ring. People in Europe are offering me a fortune. I'm tired of signing autographs. I can make more money wrestling."

There's nothing here that's too surprising, but I will say I'm surprised to hear Ric say something like the idea that he can go better than 90% of the guys currently in WWE. And as much as I love and respect Ric Flair, that statement is complete shit. Flair was carried in his final few matches by younger guys in better shape who, frankly, were better in the ring at that time then Flair was. Make no mistake about it, Flair's last match was only a classic because of the emotion and spectacle that went into that match, not because people were having flashbacks to the Flair of '89.

"But I respect Shawn and (WWE) so much that I wouldn't do anything to disrespect them. They would have to give me full approval (to wrestle again). They put me in a special place. I think it's going to be a long time before we see something come across again like what they did for me (with the retirement ceremony). I didn't think it would be that big a deal. We'll see how this turns out."

Selfishly, I hope WWE never give Flair that permission. I wouldn't be totally against Flair wrestling a few more matches in the futre, but they'd have to mean something. They'd almost certainly have to take place in WWE as well, on one of the bigger pay-per-views, if not the biggest. Seeing Ric Flair wrestling in Europe or for one of the US indies would be a shame, because Ric Flair is too good to be one of those guys who just can't quit and has to work those shows because their egos won't let them walk away.

"The people running Ring of Honor are really nice guys and have a lot of integrity, which mean a lot in terms of wrestling promotions. They're not trying to put (WWE) out of business. They just want to have their own business. There's nothing negative unlike in TNA where all they talk about is trying to beat Vince."

As asinine as TNA is for the way they're challenging WWE all the time, you have to admire their ambition, whereas ROH knows that it isn't anywhere near the level where it can even begin to think about competing with WWE.

And as anti-TNA as a lot of guys are, they're not that far away from being genuine competition. TNA is doing a great job of expanding its market internationally, expanding their house show circuit, and all that sort of stuff. They're trying out new things and although they don't all work, they are slowly getting there and that is being reflected in their TV ratings and pay-per-view buys. In contrast, WWE is clearly on the decline in terms of ratings and pay-per-view buys and as far as I'm aware, sales in general. Now I'm not delusional enough to think that there's competition akin to what there was in nineties, but one company is on the up and one is seemingly on the decline, although who knows, it may just be part of a cycle. Maybe it's just the optimist in me that thinks competition would be good for the business, but I don't think WWE is as far ahead as many of its most hardcore fans and sympathizers would have you believe.


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Rey Mysterio Injured, but Set to Work Judgment Day


During his match with Shelton Benjamin, taped on Tuesday and aired during Superstars on Thursday, Rey Mysterio suffered a knee injury. Thankfully, Mysterio won't have to miss any time and he will be working the pay-per-view tomorrow night. Don't be surprised if he's used in a non-wrestling role on SmackDown for the next week or two, however, just to ensure that the injury isn't aggravated and it becomes a bigger problem then it needs to be. Mysterio is set to defend his Intercontinental Championship against Chris Jericho Sunday at Judgment Day.

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Rey Mysterio to Release Biography in November
Speaking of Rey Mysterio, he's got a biography coming out November 10. Now originally I had heard that this was supposed to be an autobiography, but a report yesterday suggests that it is actually a biography written by Jeremy Roberts. My guess? It's a Rey Mysterio autobiography, but Roberts is getting the assist, much like was the case with Batista awful autobiography released a couple of years ago. What the hell made that guy think he had anything to say that people would give a damn about? In contrast, a Mysterio biography should be pretty great in educating wrestling fans on lucha libre, (elaborating on the stuff we've read in Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho's books), chronicling the fall of WCW, and of course there'll be a lot in there about the deaths of Guerrero and Chris Benoit. I'm also really intrigued as to what is said about Mysterio's world championship run, and more specifically the criticism that Rey should have never held the belt, and never would have held the belt if it weren't for the "sympathy push" following the death of Eddie. So hopefully Mysterio has more input on this than Jeremy Roberts, because it could be one of the more intriguing book projects WWE has put out.

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WWE Legal Clamping Down on PPV Streams
"WWE Legal has become very aware of illegal stream on sites like Justin.TV. The company plans to attack the sites and shut down illegal PPV feeds. They will treat all sites like Justin.TV like they have people posting copyrighted material on YouTube."

I love how WWE Legal isn't just aware of this issue, but they're "very aware." And truth be told WWE has every right to look to put a stop to this practice. It's ridiculous how many people simply watch shows on these sorts of streams these days; if you've ever been on the 411 forums on a Sunday night, all anyone's asking is where the best stream is. At the end of the day, people aren't going to want to shell out $40 for a pay-per-view when for sacrificing a bit of picture and sound quality, they can watch them for free. And even though some people would rather not watch the shows at all than shell out the cash, you have to know that this practice is taking a substantial number of buys away from WWE profit margins. I do, however, wonder if WWE Legal would be turning the heat up if it weren't for the dip in pay-per-view buys in recent months.

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Mr. Kennedy Poised to Make Another Big Return


Mr. Kennedy is set to make his return to Raw any week now. Kennedy worked a match at a FCW show a few weeks back so is obviously ready to return to the ring. Interestingly, Raw has a show from Mr. Kennedy's hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin on June 22nd, so don't be surprised if they hold off on his return until then.

Of course, everyone seems to be of the opinion that it is only a matter of time until Kennedy suffers another injury that puts him on the shelf once again. While Kennedy has proven to be somewhat injury prone, it seems as though he has stayed away long enough to ensure that this injury has fully healed up and so hopefully Kennedy will be in a position to have a good solid run on the Raw roster. And yes, this is probably Kennedy's fourth or fifth attempt at making a name for himself. Until now, suspensions and/or injuries have prevented him from reaching the full potential that so many see in him.

However, I think it's worth pointing out that Kennedy could well be a world champion by now if it weren't for rash decision making on the part of WWE. You'll recall Kennedy was the winner of a Money in the Bank Ladder match in 2007, but that he lost the briefcase to Edge when Kennedy went down with a shoulder injury. Original prognosis had Kennedy being out of action for around a year, and so WWE hurriedly made the decision to switch the Money in the Bank title to Edge and have Edge cash-in that same week. Now Mr. Kennedy had already said he'd wait until WrestleMania 24 to cash-in, so I have to wonder why WWE didn't wait a few more days to find out for definite how long Kennedy would be out for, because it soon became apparent that he'd only miss two or three months. And indeed Kennedy was back by the summer. Now if they'd not been so rash, they could have gone through with the original plan and have Kennedy cash-in at Mania 24. Obviously that's not how things went down, but c'est la vie.

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Randy Orton Discusses Mania 25 and More


Who'd have thought it, maybe Randy Orton is a good choice to represent the compant. Orton came across as very professional in a recent interview with The Sun.

"This was a storyline where Triple H needed retribution. He needed to beat the living p*** out of me because of what I did. I handcuffed him and made him watch while I beat up his wife and then kissed her while she was unconscious. Then to top it off after I do that, I knock him out with a sledgehammer to the head. I kick his father-in-law in the skull and put him in the hospital, and do the same to his brother-in-law. I think when all that happens and then you have this match where he can't be disqualified or he loses the title, you kind of screw yourself. We were not able to do everything that the other guys were able to do. Matt and Jeff Hardy had a hardcore no-holds-barred match. They were able to use all the bells and whistles to beat the hell out of each other. Everyone was expecting Triple H and I to do the same, but we had rules that put a fence around everything we were able to do. We weren't able to go to the extreme. If anything hurt us, it was that."

Orton picks up on a good point and that's that the two guys were limited by what they could do due to the stipulation. But as he also points out, this was a situation where Orton had tortured Triple H for months and The Game needed to gain retribution in this match.

I think a lot of people hated on this match partly, but not wholly, because Triple H went over the IWC's latest darling in Randy Orton but the fact is, as Orton seems to realize, that faces go over at WrestleMania, especially in a case such as this where the face needs that retribution. Yes, Triple H could have afforded to take the loss, but that's not what wrestling is about. Wrestling ultimately boils down to good vs. evil and nine times out of time, evil simply can never prevail.

"The older and more mature I've become in the business, the more responsibility I'm able to carry in being champion and representing the company. This is going to be where I make my name and I cement myself in history. I've already done that in a lot of ways – becoming the youngest champ of all time, being in an Evolution, being a third-generation competitor, headlining WrestleMania. But I think this title run is going to be what makes Randy Orton."

I said this same kind of thing about Orton in a column a few weeks ago. Now that he has seemingly grown up he can finally be able to fulfill his potential, and now that he's not behaving like a spoiled brat, the WWE brass wil have faith in him to do just that and as a result they'll put more stock in him. It's a dynamic that has to work two ways, but when it works it has should have magnificent results.

"Manu had some respect issues. There are a lot of different reasons he wasn't good for Legacy, but the reason he's not with the company anymore had a lot to do with his backstage attitude. His father was the great Afa, of the Wild Samoans, and Manu had been in the ring since his early teens. Now, in his early 20s, technically he's been in the ring for more than a decade - but not really. Really he'd only been in the business a month by the time I knew him. He carried himself like he had been in the business for 15 years. He thought he knew everything. He thought he deserved a first-class seat when we went overseas. He thought he didn't have to pick up in the lockeroom after the show was over, like the new guys do. He didn't feel like he had to pay his dues, because he'd already paid them. What he doesn't understand is that wrestling once a week for 10 years doesn't count. "

Ironically, can't you just imagine Orton being just like this back when he first started in WWE? Hell, even now Orton has had barely ten years of in-ring experience himself. But regardless of Manu's attitude, he never did offer much and certainly not in the context of Legacy. He definitely didn't have the look to be a part of Legacy and he didn't have the skill either, or the swagger. Manu still has potential I think, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in WWE some day, but that day might be quite a way off if this is anything to go by.

"Anywhere you go in this business, there is always that need to recruit and create talent. WWE has a farm system down in Florida, FCW, where they have 50-60 guys at any given time. There are lots of second generations down there. Mike Rotunda's sons are up and comers, they will be debuting soon I'm sure. Harry Smith has been up, he's been back, he's been up – he was a potential fourth member of Legacy for a while and I can see him being part of our group in the future. We need these young guys and new guys to be tutored to one day be the top-level performers in our company – because people get old or get hurt."

Again Orton raises a good point but there is one issue I'd like to challenge. WWE can't rely on second or third generation stars to be their top performers in the coming years. Just because their Dads had some success in the eighties does not necessarily mean that these kids will. WWE has struck gold in the past with multi-generation wrestlers like The Rock and Orton himself, but there have also been a few dudes, like the aforementioned Manu. The likes of Harry Smith, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and the Colons (Primo especially) are still to new to WWE to really be judged, but admittedly they all look to have promising futures. But there's also bound to be a lot of talent that don't have the benefit of pro wrestling families, and these guys are just as valuable to the future of WWE as any of the other guys are.

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Judgment Day Preview


Here's the problem with Judgment Day; in three weeks time at Extreme Rules or whatever it's being called now, we're going to see mostly the same matches again, just with gimmicks attached. So what, exactly, is the point of this show?

The card;
CM Punk vs. Umaga
Intercontinental Championship Match: Rey Mysterio © vs. Chris Jericho
ECW Championship Match: Christian © vs. Jack Swagger
John Cena vs. The Big Show
WWE Championship Match: Randy Orton © vs. Batista
World Heavyweight Championship Match: Edge © vs. Jeff Hardy

This could actually be a really good show. Jericho/Rey is a match that will probably be better without a gimmick than it would with a gimmick, and as long Mysterio's injury isn't too serious, this could be a sleeper for match of the night.

Cena and Show will be slow and probably not very exciting, but I've enjoyed a couple of their matches in the past and it could be surprisingly fun.

The ECW Championship match has produced some great battles in the past and assuming it gets enough time, I see no reason why Christian and Swagger won't deliver again.

CM Punk and Umaga is an interesting clash of styles, but should be fun. I like both guys and I've pretty big expectations for this one. Hopefully the right guy goes over though.

People seem to be down on the WWE Championship match already, but they had a really strong match together back at Armageddon so again, I have high hopes for this match although I don't really expect a classic.

Edge and Hardy are two of the best in the business at putting on an entertaining main event match and I expect much the same here. This is another contender for match of the night, I'd imagine.

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And that concludes today's news report. Apologies for the lack of creativity, but I had to cover this at late notice so them's the breaks as the kids are saying. I'm under the assumption Dustin will be back next week, until then, enjoy the rest of your weekend and the pay-per-view tomorrow.