wrestling / Columns

Thoughts from the Top Rope 10.28.10: You Wanna Do It?

October 28, 2010 | Posted by Daniel Wilcox

It’s Wednesday evening, and I have a column to write. A couple of weeks ago I spoke to 411 Wrestling head boss Larry Csonka about bringing back my old column Thoughts from the Top Rope. Since it’s been well over a year since I last submitted such a column for the zone, I’ll explain the basic premise. Thoughts from the Top Rope was my forum to discuss anything and everything wrestling-related I wanted to. There was no strict format, no restrictions and no subject I wouldn’t discuss, which made it easy to write on the vast majority of occasions.

My dilemma? As I say, it’s Wednesday evening and my column is due in a few hours. I’m very tired and I have a stack of recently-purchased horror films waiting to be watched and it’s only a few days before Halloween. Tempting. But my “comeback column” was supposed to be last Thursday. I had the thing all but completed days in advance, but due to the changing ever-landscape of professional wrestling (specifically Matt Hardy officially getting his release), I had to scrap it.

Now I find myself in a situation where I have to consider a new topic. So I head on over to your favourite site and mine, 411wrestling.com/wrestling, looking for inspiration, and what do I find?

THOUGHTS FROM THE GORILLA POSITION?

What the fuck is this shit? He’s stealing half my title? Who the hell is Peter Hopey and what is with this horrible “Irish” spiel? “Thoughts from the Top Rope” at least had a meaning, a form of symbolism, whereby the idea of being on the “top rope” where risks are taken and anything can happen reflects the unstructured and unpredictable nature of my article. “Thoughts from the Gorilla Position” implies that this guy has some backstage experience or inside knowledge of the business, which is presumably far from the truth on the basis of his first article.

Am I expected to rename my article now? Screw that, I will run this whippersnapper right off of this website and all the way over to Inside Pulse if I have to. Anyway, this guy is on notice.

And there is good news; I did indeed find something to talk about this week, – the same thing people have been talking about since last Saturday night – Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker.

TWITTER BREAK!
It’s like a Divas’ match on pay-per-view!

As I’m sure you know by now, you can now follow 411 and all of its zones on Twitter! In case you don’t, here are all the links you’ll need!

411 Wrestling
411 Music
411 Movies & TV
411 MMA
411 Boxing
411 Games
The Whole F’n Site

Until Twitter gets its own movie though, I’m still just on facebook but you can BEFRIEND ME HERE. I might not accept you, but you can try.

And don’t forget to bookmark 411Mania and/or make us your homepage!



Whether or not it was a staged confrontation or a moment of legitimate anger between two phenomenal athletes caught on camera, everyone has been talking about the words exchanged by Undertaker and Lesnar following Lesnar’s losing effort against Cain Velasquez last weekend at UFC 121. For those who have been living under a rock this week, Lesnar walked past Taker following the fight while Taker was in the middle of being interviewed. The two stared down and exchanged words, the most audible of which were “so do you wanna do it?” from the mouth of WWE’s resident phenom.

Now the general consensus is that this was in reference to a potential match between the two at WrestleMania 27 next year in Atlanta. Others believe that there is legitimate heat between the two stemming from the circumstances under which Lesnar left the WWE in 2004, notably not “giving back” to the business before leaving to pursue a career in the NFL. But hey, he put over Goldberg, right? Personally? I think Taker’s words were in reference to a wife swap. With McCool stood right there! Brave!


The fact is that the two may well have beef but this could still be step one in a plan to set up a match between the two. Personally, I don’t think there is any personal issue between them as Taker has always spoken well of Lesnar in the past and has supported him at several other of his UFC events. The question still remains, however, is there something planned for WrestleMania?


Dana White says no.

And yet, it is undeniably unusual to see Taker in plain gear being interviewed on live TV. Furthermore, if the thought hadn’t crossed Vince McMahon’s mind before last Saturday night, you can rest assured he’s been on the phone to UFC officials ever since doing everything he can to make this happen. Numbers don’t lie – pay-per-view buyrates in WWE are down, even WrestleMania, spectacle that it is. McMahon needs something to hit that one million buys target next spring and there’s little doubt in mind that a Lesnar/Taker confrontation would ensure Mania 27 did just that. The problem is that UFC contracts ensure that its performers cannot compete for any other organization for the duration of that contract. On the flip side, could McMahon not argue that there isn’t any competition involved seeing as wrestling is pre-determined?

Even if Dana White agrees, there are negatives for McMahon. Heavily featuring a star like Brock Lesnar at a time when WWE is at its most-watched (the run up to Mania) equates to direct promotion for the competition. While a lot of WWE apologists and McMahon himself might say UFC isn’t direct competition, it is. It would take a pretty watertight argument to convince me that the rise in popularity of UFC pay-per-views and decline in that of wrestling pay-per-views are not linked in some way. What would happen if WWE’s young audience saw this massive, pure athlete Lesnar on WWE TV and decided they wanted to follow him back to the octagon? Would subsequent buyrates go down further?

But of course, McMahon rarely thinks long-term, because he’s all about the money. Not the money he can make a decade from now, a year from now or even a month from now, just the money he can make right now.

And while the money comes rolling in for Mania, how much exactly would Vince have to shell out to land this deal? First of all, there’d be a shed load of money upfront. Secondly, there’s always the risk that Lesnar gets hurt whilst working for WWE and Vince has to pay some hefty compensation if Lesnar cannot make scheduled UFC dates.

But there’s one other cost that doesn’t seem to have been considered – the Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak.

If UFC is competition to WWE, then WWE is competition to the UFC. Would they want their top star, in his prime, losing to one of WWE’s top guys in front of millions of people worldwide? Sure, we all know it’s scripted, but there’s a principle involved, not just for Dana White and UFC but for Brock Lesnar. He can hardly be short of money and as such there is very little incentive for him to take up this offer. Ending Taker’s streak would sweeten the deal somewhat as I’m sure Lesnar would love to be known as the guy that beat every legend on the roster and became a 3-time WWE Champion in a span of two years, came back for one night only seven years later and ended the undefeated streak of the Undertaker.

So while the question won’t be answered definitively until Mania actually takes place, this writer’s personal opinion is that ego – whether it’s that of McMahon, White, Lesnar or Taker – will prevent this potentially phenomenal showdown from taking place.

The 3-Minute Crossover

The 3-Minute Crossover is a new segment of Thoughts from the Top Rope where I spend 180 seconds talking about a topic that has nothing to do with wrestling. It could be sports, music, movies, celebrity, something personal or anything else that isn’t wrestling. It serves as something of a commercial break in my column but with no commercials. It may or may not appear weekly. The 180 seconds does not include this explanation.

As I mentioned in the intro, I’m getting through a lot of horror films at the moment, as I’m sure many of you do every Halloween season. And in preparation of the final installment in the Saw series, I need to work my way through six Saw films this week to refresh my memory of all the plot details. Yes, a lot of people only see these films for the gore, and yes the series has been dragged out to make more money, but I must applaud the writers for writing such a complex, intriguing and intricate storyline that has lasted for so long and for the most part, makes sense. Even more impressive combining the writing with the gore, which keeps people coming back for more. Hail the Saw series!

That was 164 seconds, for those counting. So, no one.

Chester Bennington?

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So let’s assume Taker-Lesnar doesn’t happen. What’s left for Taker at WrestleMania?

Taker suffered his third straight defeat to brother Kane at Bragging Rights this past Sunday in what was, at the time, pretty shocking. No one expected Kane to come out on top of this feud and he has done and I applaud WWE for going the unexpected route. Even if Taker was scheduled to regain the title this week (don’t believe everything you read in a Jeff Small news report), the planned title switch was delayed for a lot longer than anyone thought it would be. Hell, the only reason everyone picked Kane to go over at Night of Champions was because Hell in a Cell was just two weeks later.

Following his shoulder surgery the Deadman is expected to make his comeback in time for the Royal Rumble and subsequent road to WrestleMania. That leaves a lot of time for WWE to plan one of its marquee matches and set up a Mania program for Taker. Now it’s possible that WWE may pick one of its up-and-comers because I think that there are a number of guys who would put on an at least adequate performance with Taker at Mania. Alberto del Rio springs to mind immediately. Drew McIntyre or Jack Swagger or even Ezekiel Jackson could be interesting opponents if build up correctly way ahead of the program. The problem with any of those rivalries is that while they may be fresh, I don’t think any of them would be perceived as a true threat to the streak. There are guys like CM Punk and Chris Jericho who have never had a long feud with Taker who may be able to sell the idea of them having Taker’s number because they’re just so good on the microphone. I would have absolutely no problem with Punk/Taker or Jericho/Taker featuring at Mania as I’m sure either match would rock. But taking into consideration what I see as being most likely and what I think WWE thinks will make the most money, there are some more likely candidates for the Undertaker’s next challenger to the streak.


John Cena vs. The Undertaker is one of the only real dream matches that WWE has left to feature active performers. Obviously I am aware that the two have met before, but they’ve never gone one-on-one in a high profile match since Cena made it to being a true Superstar. Cena has been WWE poster boy for so long that a lot of people would buy into the idea that Cena could be the one to end the seemingly unendable streak. And there are a couple of ways that this could happen. If WWE has balls and the creative talent to go this route (and I know at times they have both), Cena could use the Nexus angle to complete a full heel turn and go into Mania as a heel champion, with Taker fighting him after winning the Rumble. Hell he could even go into it still aligned with the Nexus. Alternatively, they could just do the face vs. face thing, which they have done a few times at recent WrestleMania events. Either could work, and unquestionably either would put the proverbial butts in the proverbial seats.


One minute people complain that WWE doesn’t focus on long-term booking, and the next they’re complaining because Nexus’ attack on Taker at Bragging Rights wasn’t explained immediately, regardless of the fact that the group has become terribly over as heels because of their seemingly random attacks. But having attacked Taker on a couple of occasions now, one would think that Wade Barrett et al would be something of a target for Taker by now. The threat of Nexus may fool some people into thinking that Barrett could take this victory, but logically Taker would go over here, in what could be a title or non-title affair. Either way, this could be a match that cements Barrett as the future of the company and one of the top heels of its present. On a separate note, how fucking insane would it be for Taker to target the Nexus upon return, only for the reveal to come prior to Mania that Nexus was sent to WWE by Brock Lesnar and the UFC in order to eliminate competition, leading to the Lesnar/Taker show down?


This is probably going to be the least popular choice but arguably the most logical. Kane has never been as dominant a force as he is right now, certainly not since his first feud with Taker, so it would be a shame if anyone but Taker ended Kane’s reign, I think, because it’s not like Kane is going to be atop of the card for years to come. He’s a guy who fluctuates. And theoretically, Kane’s summer dominance over his brother and reinforcing of that dominance between Rumble and Mania could be enough to convince potential buyers that the outcome of a potential Taker-Kane final showdown wouldn’t be all that predictable. On the flip side, they have warn out nearly every gimmick available to them and the expected sub-par match quality might prevent viewers from laying down the big money for this one.


The Miz is going to be involved in WrestleMania 27 in a big way, I feel, and this could be it. Does WWE have enough faith in The Miz to allow him to be the guy to end the streak? Probably not. Do they see him as low enough on the card to be the first to cash in Money in the Bank unsuccessfully? Again, probably not. But could The Miz’s big mouth make people want to see Taker kick his ass at WrestleMania? Unquestionably. Miz has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years and he would put on a great show against the Phenom at Mania, I feel. And of course there are a lot of ways they could do this, either advertising the match beforehand or having Miz cash in against Taker on the night, or even have Miz go in as reigning champion having cashed in already. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Of course, if none of these materialize, we can always hope for Taker-Michaels III, perhaps with Taker’s career on the line this time?

One of the greatest WWE vignettes ever. God I miss HBK.

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