The Wrestling Sandwich 02.11.12

Posted by Wes Kirk on 02.11.2012

Thoughts on the Rock's return at Survivor Series having a lower buyrate than reported, the current WWE YouTube channel shows, this week's Impact Wrestling, a look back at the career of Wendi Richter and more!



If you expected anything to actually be posted in the responses regarding the supposed "Wes is wrong on global warming" you're going to be sorely disappointed. The science is settled, there is a consensus now among respected scientific figures that there is no global warming...HA! How do you guys like it? Oh, you guys really do give me a good laugh every week I must say that. To actually call God a hoax and made up and then worship charts that show a miniscule little increase in temperature over a twenty year period that has since dropped claiming humans are causing it is just as delusional as you think I am. I don't buy stupidity and alarmism, if you guys want to that is your call but I'm not stupid enough to be swept into this farce. I checked studies by scientists that actually worked in climate (imagine that? Climate scientists discussing climate instead of geologists or geophysics professors!) And the evidence points to a Medieval Warming Period that had the same or greater warming over 500 years ago without any industrial machines to expel CO2 into the atmosphere. Some of you used my graph to try and prove there was warming, which shows how stupid you really are because there was one specific part of the graph that you should have paid attention to more than anything: The CO2.



Specifically look at the section around 1991 to 1995, then compare that to the section from 1999 to 2001. Do you notice anything? You should notice that CO2 is going up and the temperature...is going down. The basis of the AGW theory is that CO2 is CAUSING global warming, but if that were true the temperatures would continue to rise if the CO2 level rose. If you observe the 1991-1995 section you can see CO2 concentration around 355 parts per million and yet the temperature did not rise. At 390 ppm right now, you can see that the temperature is currently around 0.2C above normal and headed downward. The last fifteen years show a DOWNWARD trend, not an upward trend, and if your theory was correct the temperature should be over 1C right now because CO2 has only increased and not decreased. Oh, did I ruin your fantasy world with some facts? Here's more:

No Need To Panic Over Global Warming

Impressive scientific credentials, including the founder of the International Journal of Forecasting. Who do you idiots have, Al Gore and a few twits on the take from East Anglia? What a stupid belief to have!

Speaking of stupidity, your chance to actually be in the next edition of the Wrestling Sandwich is next week. I told you all I'd go over what you need to do in our Great Guest Experiment so here's what is going to happen and I suggest you follow along if capable:

- Your deadline is Thursday night at 11:59 PM EST in the comments section. You will have from the Impact ratings release on Friday until after Impact on Thursday to send in comments on the following:

Top news and reactions to that news from the past week
Your choice for Smartest and Dumbest things of the week
Your pick for Wrestler and Babe to watch (I'll provide the pretty pictures)
Your reviews/analysis of Smackdown, RAW, and Impact

And that's all you need to do. You have 2800 characters per comment box, if you require more then post more. If there is a considerable lack of participation I reserve the right to have my column be anything I want it to be and that means anything! So it is on your head and if you don't step up and show you can offer something, not only will the column be proof you guys suck but it'll also be on your head forever that I was right all along about my naysayers. Whatever you post will be reviewed by a special panel of three 411 writers that will evaluate your work like you do ours every day. Yeah, I'm looking very forward to this!






Top Stories of the Week!

1. Weekly Ratings Roundup

TNA Impact Wrestling - 1.1, 1.6 million viewers (slightly down from last week)
WWE Smackdown - 2.1, 3.1 million viewers (slightly up from last week)
WWE RAW - 3.2, 4.6 million viewers average: Hour 1 4.8 million Hour 2 4.4 million (significantly down from last week)

RAW plunges back to reality would be the headline I'd take away from those numbers. Impact stayed as steady as it usually is although it lost a slight number of viewers, Smackdown lost a slight number of viewers as well but it was RAW that was the major story this week. Over 400,000 people stopped watching the second hour of RAW which has got to be a very big disappointment considering the main event involved the six people in the Elimination Chamber and people didn't even stick around to see if John Cena would be on the show! This is not a very good sign, especially considering how close we are to WrestleMania, that RAW continues to post mediocre numbers with losing viewership in the second hour but we'll keep an eye on things.

PPV UPDATE:

Survivor Series has apparently been lowered from the original forecast of buyrates significantly. As you may already know, the original buyrate reported was 300,000 buys. Afterwards, 280,000 buys were being discussed but now apparently the new number that has been talked about as official is only 260,000 buys! This, if true, makes it only 16,000 buys higher than last year's Survivor Series event.

The reason this is significant is that if The Rock doesn't bounce ratings enough there could be a good chance that WrestleMania does NOT break one million buys this year despite the Cena/Rock main event match. Anything under a million buys MUST be considered a complete disappointment by WWE considering the promotion and preparation they are putting into the show. Oh, and who is being blamed for this? For some reason, The Miz. Yeah, it can't possibly be people getting sick of the same old crap every week can it Vince? We'll find out in late February if this number holds or maybe even gets lower!

WWE YouTube Numbers:

Overall Subscribers to the channel: 378,803 (as of Feb 6th)
Overall Subscribers as of the morning of Feb 10th: 371,036

Shows (as of the morning of Feb 10th):

Are You Serious? 171,577 views
Backstage Fallout 105,819 views for RAW, 39,193 views for Smackdown
Z! True Long Island Story 123,942 viewers
Dolph Ziggler's debut edition of WWE Download - 134,332 views
Edition #2: 34,467
Santino's Foreign Exchange original episode - 157,626 views
Outside The Ring original episode featuring the Usos - 142,125 views
WWE Inbox Original Episode - 136,197 views
Edition #2: 92,605
WWE NXT - No show has broken 10,000 views as of yet
WWE Monday Night RAW - No clip has broken 100,000 views as of yet
WWE Smackdown - No clip has broken 100,000 views as of yet
Superstar Toyz - 28,629 views
NASCAR Carl Edwards and John Cena clip - 5,325 views

If I were WWE, I'd be a bit concerned that the channel has under 500,000 subscribers and that the numbers for their videos seem to top off around 160,000 views, and remember view just means who clicks the video and doesn't identify unique visitors. With most of this going to the WWE Network in the fall, the fact is it doesn't seem to be getting a lot of interest considering YouTube videos generally get hundreds of thousands of hits if anything is reasonably good enough to catch attention. Some of the most famous videos have gotten tens of millions of hits, and WWE is right now looking at what may very well be the WWE Network numbers for these same shows. Also of note is that WWE has LOST several thousand subscribers between Feb 6th and Feb 10th and the second editions of the shows are on average drawing lower than the debut edition.

WWE has around 250 million views from fans, but that is combining every video ever uploaded on that channel and is a misleading number since the actual videos themselves are proving to be fewer than 160,000 views in general. YouTube is free and customers can access it anytime, as well as the fact WWE's channel has no region restrictions, so these are actually WORLD NUMBERS and not American numbers. I compared this to some of TNA's recent postings:

TNA Wrestling Channel - 180,156 subscribers
TNA Wrestling Video Views - 394,285,944 (that is not a typo)

Well, who woulda figured that one out?

Also, TNA has broken the 100,000 and 200,000 views mark already! Most of the TNA Impact clips have reached a healthy five figure amount, and some of the post shows and one and a half minute footage clips from the PPV's are as good or better than the RAW, Smackdown, and NXT viewings!

Frankly I am a little stumped. Why did Bobby Lashley's return to wrestling on TNA get over 1.7 MILLION hits? Why did Awesome Kong's title win get over FIVE MILLION hits? Velvet Sky and Angelina Love reuniting gained 2.3 million hits? To me this indicates that people actually give a damn about what happens on Impact and if they miss it, they watch it on YouTube or even if they watch it they sometimes relive it on YouTube. Honestly, I started this experiment off doubtful TNA's channel would have comparable numbers but it is pretty amazing how well they are doing. TNA should hit 400 million views within next week if the current numbers hold up.



2. TNA Impact Quick Recap

1. Christopher Daniels defeated AJ Styles with a pair of brass knuckles ***
2. Alex Shelley defeated Douglas Williams and Austin Aries with the Shiranui/Sliced Bread #2 on Aries ***
3. Velvet Sky defeated Mickie James with an inside cradle **1/2
4. Sting and James Storm defeated Bobby Roode and Bully Ray when Sting forced Roode to submit to the Scorpion Deathlock ***1/4

Best Booking of the Show: The Champ Shows He Can Be Defeated

Worst Booking of the Show: Not putting in a third girl to work with Mickie and Velvet

Another good night of wrestling as we saw four matches with three of them hitting at least three stars and the other one still good enough to outdo pretty much every Divas match of the last five years.

The Star Wars "theme" was simply promoting the movie and the prizes you could win on the bottom of the screen along with a Star Wars movie splicing with the Bischoff family saga, so it was kept limited and effective. Also of note was the production for the U.K tour video, which was absolutely on point. They didn't have any "plastic light saber death matches" or anything of the like and kept the thing focused on wrestling and promoted the 3D version of the movie here and there but not enough to be massively annoying.

Daniels takes a victory but AJ Styles may have the last laugh as he gets Kazarian in the ring Sunday and may finally get to sort everything out or at least beat the shit out of him. Shelley showed once again why he belongs as a top X-Division wrestler with Aries and Williams in a very fun match and Velvet... I must preface this by saying that woman is beyond gorgeous and looked especially delicious tonight, and although she isn't able to wrestle the same style as Mickie or Gail she did a better than WWE Diva job. Also, her ass is out of this world.

The main event surrounded our fatal fourway for the world title with Sting, who will be the guest enforcer referee, tagging with Storm to face Ray and Roode. Sting finished the tag team match despite damaging his heel and getting a victory, which is the mark of a true legend in the business, that kept on going no matter what. Obviously with Bully Ray no longer protecting Roode, things are not looking good at all for the champion come Sunday night. Also, Ray really is upping his game on those "little things" and making a lot of people look stupid for questioning him in the spot he is in now. NEW YORK CITY, BITCHES!

Impact and Against All Odds reviews coming next week!


3. WrestleMania Predictions

1. MAIN EVENT: The Rock vs. John Cena (confirmed)
2. MAIN EVENT #2: WWE Championship: CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho
3. MAIN EVENT #3: World Championship: Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus
4. MAIN EVENT #4: Streak vs. Career (maybe?): Undertaker vs. HHH part III
5. Diva's Championship: Beth Phoenix vs. Kharma
6. IC Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. Goldust/Dustin Rhodes
7. Money In The Bank match likely featuring Kofi Kingston, Justin Gabriel, Wade Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, and potentially Big Show, Kane, and Ted Dibiase

Nothing really changing from last week, as we now know UT/HHH is pretty much being set in stone but the major question will be what, if anything, will HHH put on the line? Also, how will Shawn Michaels figure in or will he even be a factor in the storyline? Jericho and Punk are already beginning their feud, Bryan still has to get some unfinished business behind him before Sheamus can make his challenge in the Elimination Chamber, Beth Phoenix seems to be laying the groundwork for her fight as well with a likely defeat of Tamina followed by the challenge from Kharma. Nothing new with Cody and Goldust as of yet, and the idea of a Money in the Bank match still exists considering they have the PPV scrapped on their latest listing. I will, however, applaud the WWE for finally realizing that 13 or 14 PPV events a year is too much! Nothing wrong with cutting the price either for their fans, but I doubt they will do that!



4. More Did You Know? Lies!

On Monday Night RAW, the WWE claimed that they beat both NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams and Fear Factor together. As usual it was a load of bullshit as shown thanks to the awesome TVByTheNumbers.com below:

Rock Center - 3.29 million viewers
Fear Factor - 3.98 million viewers
combined total: 7.27

RAW's last week total viewers: Average 5.2 million viewers from 5.3 first hour and 5.1 second hour/2.1 rating in 18-49 demographic

Top show two weeks ago on Monday Night? Pawn Stars - 7.1 million viewers/2.5 rating in 18-49 demographic

Somehow I doubt that will show up on the next Did You Know? segment.








Smartest Thing of the Week: Wrestling Matters Here

Impact Wrestling continues to be the real wrestling show as the mixture of newer faces and legendary icons put on matches that pretty much leave most WWE offerings in the dust week after week. One of the common complaints is that TNA didn't put on enough wrestling but lately they have put on some longer matches that rated highly although they did have a lot of videos this week, but it was the hard sell for the PPV! Good stuff from TNA and it shows that once again the critics are eating a lot of crow making doomsday predictions that never came true. TNA is dying my ass, if anything it has a second life!





Dumbest Thing of the Week: Wrestling Doesn't Matter Here!

Quite possibly the dumbest show of the week was again Monday Night RAW. I'm sorry, I'm just having a lot of difficulty figuring out the motives of a show in which the following happens:

- HHH said he was about to fire Laurinitas but yet the board of directors says they will postpone the decision and release it the next morning on WWE.COM instead of next week on RAW. By the way, he's staying.
- The Great Khali is given more than five seconds to showcase his "wrestling skills" and helped make Rhodes and Barrett look like idiots while again making Orton look good.
- David Otunga actually gets offense in against Sheamus and for some odd reason does a Tim Tebow mockery pose when Tebow hasn't been on Monday nights for three weeks.
- Eight Divas get around 50 seconds to basically do nothing but allow Tamina to pin a random Bella and even then, nobody even cares including the announcers. The match was so sloppy that Eve suffered a broken nose.
- Bryan and Show have ANOTHER inconclusive ending despite Bryan retaining at the Rumble and supposedly being done with this horrid feud. AJ also is having no favors done to her career with this angle.
- R-Truth nearly ends up paralyzed thanks to Miz forgetting how to catch a guy during a dive in a match so horrible that even the resident WWE mark didn't rate it five stars. The man would give Henry vs. Bastion Booger five stars!
- Where the hell is Brodus Clay? You've pushed him down our throats, are you finally accepting the fans aren't interested in the gimmick since Friday's match was edited out of the broadcast and he was nowhere to be found on RAW?

All I can say is if you enjoy subpar wrestling, horrible entertainment, and utterly trivial matches you'll love the next year of Monday Night RAW. I remember when people actually weren't embarrassed to admit they watched this show back in the 1990's but I feel bad for anybody saying they are a fan of wrestling and citing this show as an example of a wrestling program. Even WWE moved away from "professional wrestling" themselves, that should tell you something!




OLD SCHOOL WRESTLER OF THE WEEK

Wendi Richter

Wendi Richter was one of the most famous and important female personalities in the history of the WWF, and before Montreal she was the victim of the original backstage screwjob as well. What else did you not know about one of the most popular women's champions of all time? Let's find out!

Unsurprisingly, Richter was trained at the Fabulous Moolah's female wrestling school known as the Lillian Ellison School of Professional Wrestling like mostly every female wrestler was at the time and debuted in 1979. Moolah was basically the queen of women's wrestling in the older days and was able to use her influence to get women hired or fired in various parts of the country, and usually used them to get herself over as much as possible. Richter originally teamed with Moolah against the team of Velvet McIntyre and Princess Victoria for a few matches in the World Wide Wrestling Federation before going on to team with Joyce Grable, who helped train her as well and named themselves the Texas Cowgirls. They performed in a series of matches for Stampede Wrestling against McIntyre and Judy Martin as well, and the McIntyre-Richter feud would go on to Mid-South Wrestling where McIntyre would best Richter on two occasions. Richter and Grable feuded once again with Martin and McIntyre into the AWA as of April 1983 and then in May headed to Stampede Wrestling and also managed to pick up the NWA Women's Tag Team Championship on two occasions.

Richter returned to the WWF in late 1983 and soon teamed with Peggy Lee for rematches with McIntyre and Princess Victoria. She was mostly an unremarkable talent at the time but had no idea her world was about to change forever as an angle running in the company was Cyndi Lauper and Lou Albano feuding and at one point Lauper claimed she would be a better manager than Albano could ever be. Therefore, the current WWF Women's Champion Fabulous Moolah was teamed with Albano as her manager against Cyndi Lauper and her new protégé Wendi Richter! With the pop culture icon by her side, Richter took out Moolah to win the gold at The Brawl To End It All on July 23, 1984. The broadcast card in total had earned MTV their top ratings in history up to that year, and began the Rock'N'Wrestling Connection that combined the use of music in professional wrestling.

Richter lost the title to Moolah's new protégé Leilani Kai in early 1985 on the War to Settle The Score, but at WrestleMania she would regain the championship once again. Richter was animated for the Hulk Hogan Rock'N'Wrestling cartoon show, and she'd also be in Lauper's music video for "She Bop" and referred to herself in the ring as "150 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal" as well. However, there was one massive problem in the form of Vincent Kennedy McMahon awaiting Richter in a situation that would set the stage for the Montreal Screwjob years later.

Richter was legitimately one of the most popular talents in the company, some considering her as the #2 face behind Hulk Hogan himself. Richter wanted a salary increase, and McMahon wasn't very keen on it and therefore Richter refused to sign a new contract on the current salary. McMahon brought in Moolah once again and had her backstage at an event when Wendi saw her and wondered why she was there, as she'd never shown up at events where she did not compete. This set the stage for what appeared to be a routine title defense at Madison Square Garden in the month of November of all things!

November 25, 1985 was the date of the Original Screwjob when Richter faced off with the masked Spider Lady in what was supposed to be a simple defense of the belt with an unknown female wrestler under a mask and bodysuit. During the encounter, the Spider Lady broke from the script and pinned Richter to the canvas while the referee counted three quickly even as Richter kicked out at one, as he was in on the plan as well. Richter continued to struggle and fight with the Spider Lady anyway, throwing shots and unmasking her to show it was Moolah! After the match was over, Richter stormed out of the arena still in her gear and booked a flight out of New York. She never spoke to Moolah again and she'd only speak to McMahon over twenty years later for her Hall of Fame appearance.

Richter found a career in the indy circuit, starting out in Puerto Rico and then Japan and finally the US in a stretch for the late 1980's that saw her become the WWC Women's Champion over Monster Ripper, perhaps better known as Rhonda Singh or Bertha Faye. Richter also popped in the AWA to face Madusa for the Women's Championship, and won it in December 1988 before losing it shortly thereafter. Richter wouldn't be seen much until 2005 when she rejoined the wrestling world as the tag team partner with Bambi, Malia Hosaka, and Jenny Taylor to face Sherri Martel, Peggy Lee Leather, Krissy Vaine, and Amber O'Neal. She'd also appear in a six-person tag match the same year in August.

Wendi was understandably pissed off about the situation with the WWF and retired from the in-ring competition in 1988. She did a shoot interview in 2005 during her reappearances to express hatred at the portrayal of females in the current WWE product and said she was still hurt over the screwjob that McMahon had foisted upon her. She was contacted in February 2009 to take part in the Divas battle royal but declined, and Santino Marella would later win that match in drag proving she was one smart cookie. The 2010 Hall of Fame would see Richter finally inducted by none other than former foe "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and discussed how the Divas thanked her for her work in the company that would lead to their division years later. She appeared at WWE Axxess as well and signed autographs in the WWE Legends section for her fans. For a long time, Wendi was married to famous ex-wrestler and Spanish announcer Hugo Savinovich!

My Memories

I would see Wendi's matches mostly on replays and older events as they surfaced and of course I'd watch her in the Hulk Hogan cartoon but due to the timeline of her exit I never got to see her perform in the ring during her WWF career. I remember that she was talked about as one of the biggest names in wrestling at the time, and frankly when I first heard about her being screwed because she wanted more money I was pretty appalled. McMahon really should have emptied a little more money in her account considering how much she actually meant not only for women's wrestling but the entire wrestling industry and the crossover with MTV. It was this change that helped add music for all the wrestlers as they came to the ring, such as "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" for Richter herself and "Born In The U.S.A" for the US Express. Later on more songs would come such as "Demolition" by Rick Derringer as well as "Real American" and Robbie Dupree's famous "Girls in Cars" song for Strike Force that for some reason a few Internet sites claim was Andre The Giant's theme music... how stupid is that?

Richter definitely has a legitimate dispute and deserved an increase in salary, but back then most females weren't even good looking that got in the ring. Today we see hot half-naked models competing in the ring for a few minutes but in the 1970's and 1980's it was mostly very rugged women who had anything but a perfect physique getting in to compete. Wendi was one of the first attractive female wrestlers, and after she got over as well as she did we'd eventually see more beautiful women in the company like Miss Elizabeth as Randy Savage's manager and eventually we'd have a division in the 1990's based around girls like Sable. Although Wendi didn't have a very long stay in wrestling, her impact on the sport is felt to this day and perhaps she herself would agree it was better to end with a bang rather than a whimper. She may not win any records for longest time spent in the company but what little time she did spend was worth every penny and helped create the modern women's wrestler mold that we use today. Thank you Wendi!

And for all of you I have a nice treat. Here's the big title win as it happened in 1984! We'll be joining the match in progress so take it away Gorilla and Mean Gene Okerlund!





Take 5 is being renovated with some new designs so it will be back soon. Didn't help they purged all the pictures off the server last week right before I was about to post, but I came prepared! Always keep backups, kids. In lieu of putting up new pictures every week for match and promo I'm going to add some permanent fixtures instead so stay tuned!




The Good, The Bad, and The… WTF?

The Good

"How ironic, A real injury from a fake punch.

Posted By: Guest#2977 (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 12:21 PM"

Isn't it? When you think about it, you really stop to think by that point this person should not be in a wrestling ring for a while.

"According to a report, the WWE has been culling potential Superstars in the making for the project, making a list of those they want involved and even already reaching out to a few. The series would focus solely on cruiserweights around the 200 pound range, a division that set World Championship Wrestling (WCW) apart from the then-WWF and helped establish its dominance during the beginning of the Monday Night Wars.

Wrestlers like Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and others welcomed fans and tore the roofs off of arenas, whetting the appetite of those in attendance while the main eventers like Hulk Hogan, Goldberg and Sting closed out the show. It's a tried and true formula the WWE, for some reason, hasn't stuck to, since they've banished almost every high-flyer minus Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne -- although the latter is not too long for the WWE, methinks -- from Stamford.

Mr kirk what do you think about this?

Posted By: Guest#1087 (Guest) on February 03, 2012 at 11:32 PM"

I think all you need to do is look at the cruiserweight wrestling division in 2006. They had all their cruiserweights jobbing to a midget leprechaun who ended up becoming the Cruiserweight Champion and ended the division because he was, at the time, supposedly Vince's son and nobody wanted him getting hurt. That's how their entire division just up and died. The fact is nobody in the management section believes these cruiserweights are worth the majority of television time so expect it to fizzle out just like the last time. Should they put the cruiserweights on TV, well, you can see what they did to the Divas lately so expect the same treatment - short matches, dumb angles, and a lot of stupidity in general regarding how they are booked. In short, the outlook is very bad for any cruiserweight division beyond the first couple months, as Hornswoggle with the Cruiserweight title belt tells me this isn't going to be pretty.

"Could do without all the political and religious diatribe. Doesn't add anything

I agree about Jericho. They had one storyline heading into the Rumble which was Jericho predicting the end of the world and threw it away for the sake of a swerve. Sometimes surprises aren't the best alternative. They've done it for the last few years and it hurts the quality of the product and the superstars (i.e HHH not putting RVD, booker, Kane, Orton over, Del Rio winning the RR and then losing at WM 27)

I actually really like him, but Sheamus could have easily gone the EC route of becoming the number 1 contender, hell he's even on the all the marketing materials for the event.

Jericho and Punk are good enough to turn it around though, so I'm staying cautiously optimistic.

Posted By: Guest#1671 (Guest) on February 03, 2012 at 11:42 PM"

I'm trying not to inject too much religion and politics, just here and there when important news comes out like it did the night of the Rumble.

Some here say that Jericho is so established as a star he doesn't require the Rumble victory, which to an extent I agree with. However, Jericho has been with the WWE since 1999 and never won a Royal Rumble! He really did deserve it if this is his last year or last full year of competition.

Sheamus is a good enough competitor but let us not forget he's only in the WWE because of whom he worked out with and got a massive push thanks to that individual. Punk and Jericho also are not especially loved by the Son-In-Law-From-Hell so I wouldn't expect very much good to come out of 2012 for those two, especially since Punk is the current champion. Why be optimistic? This is the same company that screwed up the Nexus angle in 2010, screwed up the Summer of Punk in 2011, and screwed Jericho's return in 2012. In my view, they need to earn our optimism now.

"Yoyoyoyoyoyoy wurd up tuganomics I'm a white boy rappuh.
I guess you could consider me a Cena-hater. Then again, who could like a guy who acts like a white-boy rapper, actually does rap (badly, I should say) and has little to no wrestling ability, and has been pushed to glorious "exalted" status, as I call it, meaning he's the WWE champion for over a year nonstop, without losing it once, and ALWAYS in the main event of every PPV and TV show. If WCW were still around, Cena would not be big business for the WWE.

If you like untalented "wrestlers" who have really dirtpoor gimmicks and really bad mic skills, you'd probably like Cena. If you're not a Cena fan, you really won't care about his car collection or his house. And with only seven matches featured, you won't really feel satisfied with this, even if you are a Cena fan.

Posted By: Guest#5347 (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 01:09 AM"

Yo yo yo Cena!

Cena is business right now for the kids, and that's wonderful for the WWE but the fact is he isn't drawing any new numbers and ratings are down for nine years and counting. If a billionaire backed a company like TNA to be the new WCW and put it on a channel people actually watch I'd agree that he'd probably be annihilated in competition, but at this point wrestling is no longer a very good investment.

"The Royal Rumble was garbage. For me it was more like a 1.0

Impact on the other hand now has two diehard new fans (just started airing down here)

Posted By: Fazz (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 01:27 AM"

Wrestling matters here, Fazz! Glad to have you and your friend aboard.

"I know I asked you about this a few weeks ago, but I just don't see *As much as it pains me to say it* HHH losing to Taker for a 3rd time at the biggest show for WWE.

I just have a terrible sick feeling in my stomach that they'll do something stupid and have HBK help screw Taker over or something..and not only will I be pissed at that as a life long Taker fan, but I think Miami would shit on it.

My best case scenario would be to have HBK as the ref, so fans might possibly think that a screw job will happen. Shawn can get things over on emotion and every time Taker makes a pin, he can be hesitant to count his friend out.

At the end of a long battle, Taker hits maybe the..3rd? Tombstone and folds H's hands symbolicly over his chest and Shawn gives Taker a "Damn you" look before reluctantly counting the 3.

I hope I'm right on that one, but it's scaring me..

Posted By: Baboon (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 01:50 AM"

Honestly, the one thing they have gotten right every year is Undertaker not losing the most famous PPV streak in history. If they do happen to go that route and have HHH take a victory, watch Miami lose it and boo the hell out of the show until the end. And if Rock loses after that I wouldn't want to be working customer services that night!

The Bad

"I would really like to meet you in real life Kirk. #SQWAINTHENUTS

Posted By: Seriously? (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 05:31 AM"



VINTAGE.

"You've called Dolph Ziggler 'overrated' and 'not as goof as he thinks he is' a number of times now. What is it about him that ticks you off? Is it something to do with him or just how much everyone else goes on about how great he is?

Posted By: mr_wishart (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 08:28 AM"

Honestly, it is just that he seems like he's trying way, way too hard to get over as a heel with athletic ability and frankly if the guy ties his shoes people are all over it saying how awesome he is. I get it, trends come and go and when they are around people think they are the greatest things ever but frankly watching Ziggler I see somebody who has tried very hard to emulate Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig and doesn't quite have that ability he thinks he does. I think he's good, but he bores the hell out of me and how anybody can think somebody with a chinlock AND a sleeper is going to be the top guy in the company someday is just beyond me. Perhaps WWE thinks the same, explaining why Kharma got to plant him in the mat at the Rumble!

"Interesting that Wes no longer comments on the UK TV ratings. This is presumably following comments that he was unaware of RAW being shown live in the uk (instead claiming that WWE "chose a lare night slot), was unaware that RAW is also repeated several times on tape delay during the week, and was unaware that the figures he'd quote for RAW were not the FINAL figures for the show (and only the live show, at that), as final figures aren't available for at least 12 days following broadcast.

Oddly I haven't seen Wes apologizing (as he claims he does when wrong)or posting correct figures.

Presumably this is an oversight and I'd like to invite Wes to admit he was wrong and apologize to those he annoyed - on a weekly basis- with his half-baked, ill-informed, and just plain wrong comments.

Or aren't you the man you claim you are?

Over to you, Mr Kirk.

Posted By: Titus (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 08:36 AM"

First people complain when I post the UK numbers, then they complain when I don't post the numbers!

Okay here is the latest data I found on the subject:

Jan 22nd Impact - 204,000 viewers
Jan 16 RAW - 173,000 viewers
Jan 20 Smackdown - 163,000 viewers

Jan 8 Impact - 241,000 viewers
Jan 2 RAW - 74,000 viewers
Jan 6 Smackdown - 142,000 viewers

So what's the problem, the numbers are wrong? Odd, seems they are published all over the Internet exactly as I just described them to be. Get over it.

""The last time somebody not heavily involved with the company from day one won the Rumble was Rey Mysterio in 2006, prior to that it was Chris Benoit in 2004 and Lex Luger co-winning in 1994"

Bret Hart-stampede for 8 years
Shawn Michaels AWA 2+years
Stone Cold-WCW 4 years

not including Undertaker,HHH or Alberto

And people say you're not a real wrestling fan....

Posted By: Guest#6497 (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 09:00 AM"

You have got to be kidding me.

Stampede and the WWF had a working relationship when both were still territories and Vince ended up buying them out. Before Bret Hart was on WWF TV nobody knew who the hell he was so no, that wouldn't count. Also, the fact his family OWNED Stampede wrestling and he still chose to go to the WWF shows his willingness to succeed somewhere else.

HBK was in the AWA for two years... so? By the end of the 1980's the AWA was on its last dying breath as WWF had killed it and raided all their stars. Again, HBK wasn't known nationally until the WWF pulled him and Marty in in 1987 and again in 1988.

Stone Cold was a mid-carder for WCW who didn't really do anything of significant note outside of his tag work with Brian Pillman and was fired because they said he'd never get over big time.

I'm talking about people who stepped into the wrestling world nationally for the first time with WWF/WWE. To try and argue with me about UT's short-lived WCW run or HHH's failed run or Alberto's work in a company half the world doesn't even know exists doesn't cut it. National exposure, not territorial.

"Massive LOL at Wes Kirk likening himself to Vince McMahon simply because he owns some low rent PC repair shop. Trust me numbnuts, your experience has ZERO relation to the kind of decisions required at corporate level, where millions of dollars are at stake. And you have the audacity to justify criticism of the as-yet-untested WWE Network - based on what? Because one time you made the risky business decision of opening a couple of hours longer on a Friday?

Internet pussy boy, you'd be in the mail room at Stamford.

Posted By: The GOAT (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 09:46 AM"

ooo, we've got the crux of the problem right here kids.

It isn't that I own my very own store and land thanks to a good decision by well-off parents and the fact unlike Goat I can hold a job in a recession economy and actually get real money and not food stamps...

It isn't that I supposedly have no ability to judge the corporate level when I already run a corporation; small as it may be, and have to deal with the same types of documents and legal reports that WWE does...

It is the fact I have the "audacity" to deal with the WWE for their stupid ass decisions!

Yeah, I do Goat. I do. If it takes 5 years of Hollywood experience and a Harvard degree to pitch the idea of a midget being the boss' illegitimate son, think that losing gimmicks get wrestlers over, forget a storyline half way through it making a new one in the process, and approved Katie Vick and the WCW Invasion angle the way it went down then yes, I'm not the right guy for the job.

I'd never have made such stupid decisions. And the WWE Network is a stupid decision! As shown, YouTube's airing of those shows meant for WWE network is bombing big time. They don't even have one million subscribers to the new shows... and WWE Network will reach only 40 million homes according to their own press release. They were about to launch the network and then realized they had no programming director or enough new material to make it happen, and had to postpone it until November after paying millions for that horrible dubstep promo that looked like it was designed by an eighth-grade autistic child. You want to know the definition of stupid? Putting on a network with no idea what to put on it and no director of programming!

The mail room at Stamford? Dude, I wouldn't last one hour because good ideas, creativity, and being honest do not get you anywhere in WWE. You live your life making minimum wage and criticizing me for my supposed lack of knowledge about corporations but boy are you out of your league. Female farting gimmicks are "risky business decisions" involving millions of dollars at stake... Stuff your head back up your ass, it's getting lonely.

"The 2012 post-Rumble RAW was the second lowest in the last six years, with the lowest rating being the year before. Numbers don't lie, people do!

well i will start with this, as wes never seems to address what i say,or, more to the point cant answer it.

So the clutching of straws really has hit a new low here, because tis was the highest rated RAW in however long he no goes back years to try and knock the E :0)

Posted By: mozza1974 (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 01:39 AM"

Yeah, it is really clutching at straws! The fact that another website bothered to compare six years of data and found WWE to have had the 2nd worst post-Rumble RAW number is not relevant at all. The fact that ratings have been in decline for over nine years is just desperation tactics. The fact that buyrates have plummeted is just a last gasp... yeah, you wouldn't be one of those people who crowed about how Bischoff was burying the X-Division last year would you? I'd hate to have your track record!


The WTF

"If you compare the ratings for the four last RAWs of 2011 to the four first of 2012, would you then be able to say that ratings are up? Honest question, because I don't have those numbers. But if said ratings are up, then Ace and Lawler are correct, no?

As you are very well aware of, it's all about perspective and promoting what one has. Because numbers do in fact, from time to time, lie.

Finally, and I've said this before: Why do you have to antagonize so much? I mean, it's great that you call out WWE, or other people/organizations/things, on their bullshit, but your condescending tone of writing is doing nothing but hurting your column.

Personally, I'm a WWE fan. I don't watch TNA - yet, but I still like this column (mostly), because it gives me more perspective on things, which I appreciate. But sometimes I want to click that close tab X when you go into your fullest bitch-and-moan-about-WWE-whilst-masturbate-to-all-that-is-TNA-mode.

Seriously, you're doing a hell of a job, but sometimes..............

Posted By: Candy Bottocks (Guest) on February 04, 2012 at 06:02 AM"

This goes in this particular category because of one thing: I posted the 2011 and 2012 first four weeks of RAW ratings IN THAT COLUMN showing 2011 ratings were higher than the first four 2012 RAW ratings, proving Ace and Lawler liars.

Why do I have to antagonize? Because when people outright lie and everybody is too stupid to even read the numbers proving it a lie right in front of their face what else am I supposed to do? I don't jack it to everything TNA does, but right now they are focusing a lot on wrestling while WWE is focusing on what comedy segment to throw Natalya in so she can make a few more farting sounds. Lovely product.












Why don't you Ask 411 Wrestling for your wrestling related matters?

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Our resident redneck Steve Cook provides you the inebriated wrestling lowdown in News From Cook's Corner and I finally figured out why he drinks as much as he does: He has to review WWE shows!

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Think you can do a better job than me? Your chance is in your hands with the Great Guest Experiment. Remember, little or no participation means I'll put whatever the hell I want in next week's edition so if you really think you have what it takes to write even a segment for an article, I'm giving you the chance. Three quick tips for you all:

1. Remember your deadline and always get your work in BY that number if not before it.
2. Spell and grammar check your work yourself or it'll be published AS-IS next week.
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Carpe Diem!