wrestling / Columns

The Wrestling Sandwich 04.28.12

April 28, 2012 | Posted by Scott Rutherford

Greetings pilgrims and welcome once again to The Wrestling Sandwich.

Big thanks to Aaron Frame for the excellent fill-in last week. The internet didn’t explode which was a good thing!

As for me, my wife is still yet to drop our new bundle of joy. The baby is now officially overdue and now talk is moving to inducing labor. Ask my wife and she’ll tell you that it should’ve been done weeks ago. As it stands it’s hard to plane around a baby that refuses to come out. Depending on when this happens I may or may not be around next weekend.

No idea who will fill-in if I’m not here…I wonder what A.J Grey is up to?

As for the world of wrestling I marvel at how little things change in the space of two weeks but also feel everything is moving so fast. I would have had buckets of stuff to talk about last week coming but this week seems a tad more thin on the ground.

No matter, this is you Wrestling Sandwich!

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Sometimes it just does pay to be a masked, superhero wrestler that is loved by millions, sell even more in merchandise than most anyone is history and can have good matches with a legless horse.

I’m sure most of you have heard by now the Rey Mysterio has failed his second Wellness test and is now sitting out 60 days. We’ll ignore the apparent stupidity of having a guy on the injured list serving a suspension that will end even before he comes back and focus on the grubby aspects of this whole thing.

For starters, I’m well and truly on the record as stating my fandom for Rey and dissatisfied at his current treatment at the hands of the WWE. He’s been a loyal soldier for them and has often put himself in harms way to help them and more often than not suffers the ill effects of this. The WWE seem to have a chip on their shoulder about Rey because he’s one of the few guys on the roster that can walk out the door with his name and go work anywhere for big money. Each party serves it’s own purpose in this relationship but Rey likely has the better hand in play.

The latest Wellness violation stinks of political crap from the WWE. Rey has been seriously injured for around 8 months now and has resisted the pressure to rush back. The WWE, low on stars, is desperate for him to get back to action because he can fill any spot on the card and slide into the main event without missing a step. With Rey playing hardball the WWE needed to get some balance back even if it cost them the ability to push a talented star…can you say random test?

We know that the WWE did a round of testing in the week leading up to WrestleMania and there seems to be the popular belief that Rey was tapped to take a test during Axxess. Short of a tester showing up at Rey’s home (which they don’t do), this seems to be the only time they could have done this. Now, if I’m a guy rehabbing a serious leg injury and have been out of action for over 6 months and a likely 6 months until I return, I would be extremely annoyed that I was tested at that time. Remember, this isn’t a legit sport and if a guy is taking something that will aid his recovery he should be allowed to. Period.

As of me writing this we still don’t know what Rey tested positive for but his last Wellness violation was due to him not getting the proper clearance in place to take something that he was legitimately able to under the policies guidelines. When he dared defend himself he put many management noses out of joint. As man going through recovery from a major knee operation steroids can be used post-op to aid recovery although in my digging around this far post-op would be optimistic unless it’s serving a specific purpose.

For mine, I think the WWE deliberately tested Rey in the surprising manner they did in the hopes that he would be popped and give them the right to publically devalue him and give the WWE more bargaining power. It also lets the WWE in the post-Overeem atmosphere show the fact they suspended one of their top stars on the spot after a second failed test giving it stark contrast to the UFC and their less than firm stance on drugs since they seem unwilling to bring in any kind of self-implemented testing.

There’s also the news that Sin Cara is back doing promo work for the WWE in Mexico and not that far off coming back himself. If he can come back and actually keep himself out of trouble and pick up some steam it will only strengthen the WWE side even more because they have the ready made masked hero replacement ready to go.

It’s never been fully established but what if Rey walked out on his contract? If you get popped three times under Wellness you can’t comeback for 12 months and when you do one violation shows you the door. If someone with two strikes walks out does that negate the two strikes if the wrestler returns since he was never fired for that third offence?

Rey doesn’t have all that many years left in his old wheels. He could go to Mexico and work like all the old protected Luchadore and make good money for a while yet. Or he can still go as hard as he can and make some decent money in Japan, Mexico and the Indys and then retire to a life of sore knees. He could also stick it out with the WWE and make big money selling his merch and wrestling on the undercard since the WWE will rarely push a two-time loser these days.

It’s interesting days ahead of Rey.

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You want further proof that Daniel Bryan is the best heel going today…

Daniel Bryan is a dick…and I love it. So many heel workers today just don’t get the broader strokes of what a heel needs to be doing to get heat. When his music played he was cheered to the ring. When he walked back after beating down Sheamus he was booed.

He did all the important things right so that even the most backward wrestling fan would understand what he was doing. Pointing to his ref shirt and then offering his chin to goad his rival is great heat and importantly not cheap heat. Any bozo can go out there and say “Your town sucks” but to make a crowd that desperately wants to cheer you turn, that’s talent.

Post fast count, Bryan then tips the cocky heel hand and removes his ref’s shirt giving Sheamus the chance to get his revenge. All the great heels make that simple mistake to let the babyface get back at him and just when the fans have hope, you slam down the shutters and leave the ‘face laying. Perfect.

The big problem here is that the money is in Daniel Bryan right now. He’s gone out and done everything he’s been asked to do and gotten himself more over every week and the fans love him and love to boo him. His promo work has been some of the best we’ve seen in wrestling for the last 24 months and like all the truly great promo men, his facials are the icing on the cake.

The bigger problem is that Sheamus was strapped to the rocket and the WWE does not like their “chosen” few to be overrun by workers that were never tipped to get over. Do you cut your loses on Sheamus? No, of course not. After he turned face he was getting great reactions by using homespun Irish charm and colloquial-laced stories. Rather than be your typical Irish wrestler that got lost in a sea of leprechauns, he used his heritage to give him a charm that sets him apart.

Adding further wrinkles to this is the return of Brock Lesnar who his eating a large chuck of headlines right now. Daniel Bryan and Sheamus sit low on the priority scale these days yet they are the guys per dollar paid that will be your better long-term investments.

I sincerely hope they throw these two guys a bone and let them have 20 minutes to work a match at Extreme Rules this weekend. Bryan is the type of worker than can get himself and Sheamus over even in defeat. They have to be kept strong for the post-Lesnar era and the two deserve to be booked that way as they have toiled hard to get their spot.

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Speaking of Brock Lesnar, the word coming out of Stamford is that they plan on having Brock vs. Randy Orton at Summerslam. I agree. Between now and WrestleMania 29 Brock needs to be fed every main eventer they have in their arsenal, especially those main eventers that are bullet proof to being beaten.

Even though Randy has floundered post-return he’s still one of the top workers in the WWE and if you’re in the business of making every cent out of Brock Lesnar you can, that will come with Brock being the unstoppable monster at WM29 and people paying to see Rocky or someone like The Undertaker stepping up to defeat the monster when it matters most.

For that to happen Extreme Rules needs to be the complete destruction of John Cena. I mean a 15-minute shellacking with minimal offence from Cena. For the success of Brock Lesnar EVERYONE has to believe that he is a shaved aped in the wrestling ring, with bad intentions and little regard for reputation. This is the perfect payoff for Super Cena. For that man to let himself be taken to the cleaners would be tremendous for business. Think Sting vs. Vader.

After destroying Cena you line everyone up and feed them to Lesnar. What is also important is that you keep Lesnar as an anomaly. He needs to be the guy that heads back to the mountains to eat raw meat and punch bears. The guy that was on RAW this past Monday was a “wrestler”. Stupid demands and ego styling is not what he needs as a character. He is a weapon and he needs to be kept dangerous right now. Bring that stuff in towards the end of the year as the first indicator that he is losing his grip.

Having Randy far about as well as Cena only serves to feed the monster image they want for Brock. Truth be told my opinion is that Randy should hang up the tights after his latest concussion and feeding him to Lesnar would be the best use of him right now as his ability to make you money with each injury diminishes.

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An interesting excerpt appeared during the week from an interview with Teddy Hart…

Konnan is a big reason behind that. Because he was a part of Stampede at it’s pinnacle as a feeder system for New Japan, WWE…. But, when he saw the state of Wrestling in Alberta… 3 years ago. He was quite appalled. Because Bret due to his stroke and due to other ailments has not been able to promote or do anything for Alberta Wrestling…. So, Konnan stepped up and let me use his name and the AAA name which is the second largest wrestling company on the earth right now. That draws live crowds and doesn’t pay studio audience crowds to come in and watch… Not disrespecting TNA, but that’s not a real show when you gotta pay the audience or the audience doesn’t pay to watch…. But AAA they provided a really good opportunity for me and Jack to showcase our skill but no one got to see it in Canada. So the people in Canada were sort of curious to create a feeder system between Stampede Wrestling… by bringing it back… Next Generation Stampeded Wrestling we’d be taking talent from AAA, possibly TNA if they’d like to work with us, Ring of Honor and the guys from Canada… There is an open draft for anyone in Canada if they’d like to try out. But Konnan got the idea to get inspired that you can bring wrestling back to Alberta. If Mexico can still do these big indy shows… and are constantly drawing 3-5,000 people for house shows that wrestling is not dead, that it just needs to be changed.”

Oh. God. No.

I know everyone has a hard-on for Stampede. I get it, I have a bunch of Stampede tapes in my collection and there is a huge amount of great stuff they did. But guess what? I can say the same for Texas, Florida, Memphis, The Carolinas, St. Louis and a bunch of other territories and those places will never come back to life as a major draw.

If you read Bret Harts book you will notice that Stu Hart had a hard time making money way back to the early 80’s. WAY before Vince McMahon started the expansion. Remember you had Bret, Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, Bad News Allen, David Schultz, Archie “The Stomper” Gouldie and Abdullah The Butcher all coming in and out of the territory and they barely broke even.

Stampedes corps has been exhumed so many times that the name “Stampede” barely has any meaning outside of us that used to watch wrestling back on the 80’s and early 90’s. To the average fan it’s the place where Bret and Owen Hart got their start. Little else. Teddy’s claim that Alberta wrestling has fallen over because of the lack of involvement of Bret Hart seems short sighted at best and just plain wrong at worse.

Doubly so when you compare what a draw the AAA is in Mexico. Luncha is a different beast altogether and while Mexican wrestling fans love WWE and North American wrestling in general, they still love “their” brand and will attend house shows to get it. Outside of the WWE, you will never draw 3000 fans to a Canadian indy show ever again unless some promoter puts his hands in his pockets and creates a one off show that is headlined by a bunch of internationally known Canadian talent like Chris Jericho and that’s just not going to happen.

I guess the shadow of ECW still manages to hang as a sirens call to independent wrestling that if you capture lightening in a bottle that you can create magic. Hands up anyone that thinks lightening will strike in Alberta, Canada and the great surge in wrestling will rise from there? If have your hand up, put it down and go outside and play in traffic.

ECW took hold in Philly because the fans there never stopped going. They kept the spirit alive even in the face of WWF and WCW and refused to accept what was offered to them. When Paul Heymen hit the balance it was the perfect storm. Canada will not be at the center of the next uprising because the fans just don’t care enough.

And using the old Stampede name would be about the dumbest thing you can do since the name has been stepped on more times than I would care to remember.

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Dean Ambrose. No name prompted more talk from my last column two weeks ago with opinions pretty evenly divided. Funny that on that week Mick Foley very publically stated he would never work with Ambrose because he wasn’t professional and stepped over the line when he mentioned Foley’s family against his express wishes. If this isn’t a work, my opinion of this comes from a massive Foley mark…

BOO FUCKING HOO, FOLEY!

Seriously Mickster, you used your family to your own end countless times and actually dragged them in front of the television cameras for Wife Swap of all friggin’ things. You are the guy the prides himself on realism in wrestling and how tapping in very real emotions can be to the benefit of promo’s and any program you are working. Saying stuff for cheap heat is a staple of wrestling and your claims of being unprofessional ring hollow from a guy that said he felt slighted by The Rock after Royal Rumble 1999 when he didn’t apologies for nearly killing you with a chair yet didn’t say A WORD about it because of how he could use it for fuel in an upcoming feud.

Dean Ambrose is a guy that is swimming upstream. Guys with a rep of going against the grain find it hard to get any sort of traction, which C.M Punk will attest. He is going to use every tool available to him to get notice and notoriety. He started things off with a bang on WrestleMania weekend and kept things running nicely.

Mick took his blood stained ball and went home.

As for Ambrose himself, I think he understands all too well what he said and what has happened by way of a tweet that asked if he was going to wrestle Foley…

“Not. I already won. Completely broke him down and owned him with a few strokes of a keyboard.”

I noticed a fair few people made positive comments on his work based on the clips I showed. Most of those people also agreed with my Brian Pillman comparison and I stand by that. Guys like Pillman, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage made money off fans believing they were unpredictable. While Ambrose is nowhere near the promo of Piper or a patch on Randy the worker, he does possess enough DNA of those guys in his persona to certainly stand up to the comparison.

I think his size will only hinder him if those in charge of creative think it will. Small guys can overcome size and be believable and I point to Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels as proof. Michaels barely weighed in at 180lbs after his comeback and Rey tips in at 175lbs. Their ring work negates the size issue and if Ambrose can keep his trajectory upwards in terms of improvement and more importantly believability, he will be fine.

His big key will be translating his character to the ring He can’t have that personality and then go work a match full of armbars because that would kill the mystique. He needs to be an out of control brawler that can bust out the odd wrestling move when the need arises. He must give off the vibe that he will sooner claw your eyes out than throw a punch. He also needs a must-see finisher that ends a match definitively. Much like Shawn with Sweet Chin Music, he needs a finisher that kills opponents dead, that can be hit from anywhere and is plausible to hit when he’s vulnerable.

Give him the tools to make his wrestling believable and he will let his mouth create the interest.

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This week’s look at the Legends of Wrestling roundtable is Worst Character. Gene Okerlund hosts the evening’s festivities with Pat Patterson, Mick Foley, Michael Hayes and Dusty Rhodes.

Foley kicks off by mentioning Mantaur and the proliferation of these types of characters and how he hated them even more because they were coming through at the time he was trying to make a name for himself. He also drops Bastian Booger. Michael Hayes brings up the botched debut of The Shockmaster as someone who had great potential on paper but never got off the ground…so to speak.

Dusty defends his son-in-law by saying when he rehearsed the entrance it all went perfect and looked great. Afterwards a stagehand decided to put a 2×4 across the bottom of the new wall and forgot to tell Ottoman. Dusty also tells a GREAT story of a young Cody Rhodes not yet smartened up to the business turning to all the other kids in their home after the helmet came off and excitedly saying “I think that was Uncle Fred!” Dusty says he laughed so hard when it happened they almost had to take him to the hospital.

Next stop is the Gobbledygooker. Gene denies all knowledge of this. Pat throws Vince McMahon under the bus as the brainchild behind that mess. They play clips from Survivor Series and the sound of the audience taking a large shit on this is beyond justified. Pat states that he though it was going to be Ric Flair but only Vince knew what was happening as he wanted to surprise everyone, even the backstage crew. Dusty says for better or worse it’s a moment they still talk about today.

Pat talks about Dusty coming to the WWF and getting stuck with the polka dots and not knowing how that could happen. Dusty’s reply? A half a millions dollars! Foley asked if they were a rib by Vince to humble him. Dusty says Vince tried to humble him every day. Dusty knew he could make it work and get it over. He also said he was so burnt out coming into the WWF that he had a ball playing a fun gimmick for 18 months and helped recharge him.

Pat gets back to Mike Shaw/Bastian Booger and Shaw coming up to him and wondering why he wasn’t getting booked. Pat told him he had to speak to Vince and after waiting over an hour to see him, Vince gave him his marching orders.

Patterson also talks about the reason why people got these gimmicks in the first place as a why of helping workers that didn’t look the part stand out. Gene brings up Terry Taylor/Red Rooster. Foley talks about how it was Taylor and Curt Hennig in contention for the Mr. Perfect gimmick. Hayes talks about how even though Taylor had talent he thought it was a rib and never worked through it. Pat questions everyone on what’s wrong with a cock in the ring…boom boom.

Hayes ribs on himself about being Dok Hendrix and Foley also talks about how he was supposed to be Mason The Mutilator and about needing to have the best name possible. Foley drags up the old story about Steve Austin and the terrible list of names that he was given and how it would have been career death if either one of them had let them be named just anything.

Hayes talks about doing stupid things like Robert Fuller coming out introducing Harlem Heat in chains and how disbelieving it was that this would happen. Dusty quickly pointed out that he wasn’t in charge then but was glad when they pulled it and was never shown. Foley talks about the stupidity of putting Ron Simmons in a blue helmet when he first came to the WWF.

Pat talks about after a proud and storied career he became a stooge but how it got to be fun. Hayes talks about the hardcore lingerie match from King of The Ring 2000 between Patterson and Gerry Brisco and how Hayes was pitching a Bra & Panties matches between Lit and Trish but Vinc wanted the Stooges on the show. So Vince mashed the gimmick with Pat & Gerry and an ungrateful public still suffers from this match.

Hayes talks about guys that managed to turn around a crappy gimmick and immediately mentions Golddust. Dusty talks about seeing it for the first time and how he was proud of how Dustin took something outlandish and used to change the industry. They touch on incident likes Scott Hall refusing to work with him. Dusty does admit that he wasn’t happy about the gimmick to begin with but liked how Dustin used the passion for the character to grow the character even if it meant under utilizing his talents.

Pat brings up George “The Animal” Steele. They play clips of Lou Albano getting a doctor to give Steele shock therapy. I still laugh at how Steele suddenly starts talking normally and then getting shocked again and reverting back to being a monster. Talk turns to Doink The Clown and how it was a good gimmick made bad by overplaying it. They all agree that Matt Bourne did a great job with the character. For some reason talk turns to Ox Baker.

Mick talks about how a good character was made great in the Undertaker and how it’s proof that if a wrestler believes in a gimmick or character they can almost always make it work. Hayes puts over how UT as a guy that will do anything to please the fans. Dusty calls him the cornerstone of the WWE.

Dusty talks about Halloween Havoc and the electric chair match and how the lever falls down all by itself three minutes in and the crack production team shoots it then again capturing Foley putting the lever back into place. Dusty jokingly admits it didn’t really work out as he saw it in his head.

They talk about Mick and his inability to light a fireball and Taker having the same issue and how they just threw the illusion out the window and UT just blatantly lit the flash paper. Foley also talks about Hell in a Cell and history repeating and not being able to light the barbed wire 2×4 while stating on the roof.

Wrap Up: This was a fun episode and having Dusty telling stories is always gold. His telling of the Shockmaster incident is one of the funniest things you will ever see and charisma just oozes out of him. Best of all most of the stories and recollections are told from a place of respect rather than denigration because every guy on that panel had been put in similar situations at some stage or another. While not terribly in-depth it is well worth your time.

Other Tasty Treats

Check out the latest CHIKARA Podcast-A-Go-Go

I’ve never been a big fan of Hulk Hogan and have no real sympathy for the hard times he’s experiencing right now but after watching this…


What? We can’t link an interview from the Wendy Williams Show to 411? This is awesome in its shittiness. In case you haven’t seen it, heres the direct link.

My response to this video…

…FUCK YOU LINDA. You take almost everything the man has but you’re not satisfied with that so you throw mud that was entirely fictitious. Your apology is as insincere as they come and was staged for the benefit of you to hopefully diffuse a situation where you can be found libelous.

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Scott Rutherford

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