The Wrestling News Experience: 09.10.12

Monday, September 10th, 2012

From 411Mania’s Canadian offices in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, this is The Wrestling News Experience, with Stephen Randle!

#firebettman

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Experience. I am Stephen Randle, and I’m more than a little upset that Daniel Bryan stole my title of “Mr. Hug-it-Out”, which I earned more than twenty years ago.

I’m just kidding. Don’t ever touch me.

Hey, TNA had a PPV last night. Don’t feel bad, they didn’t announce half the card until Thursday. Although WWE hadn’t announced half of the card for Night of Champions until Friday, either, and that’s next week. I mean, I know it’s going to be Cesaro vs Santino and Miz vs Rey (one of which will entirely be on YouTube), but would it hurt them to take five seconds and acknowledge it?

Moving on.

Rinehart had the live coverage. I got here for the Knockouts match and somehow managed to pull off the trifecta of paying attention to the PPV, writing this report, and watching football. It’s a lot easier if you don’t care about listening to the commentators verbally fellate Peyton Manning every thirty seconds. And also when the game sucks.

Jeff Hardy defeated Samoa Joe in a BFG Series Semi-Final match (pinfall, cradle)

Bully Ray defeatd James Storm in a BFG Series Semi-Final match (pinfall, Roode beer bottle)

I’d say pretty much nobody would have picked both of those guys in the final, even given who the final four were. At the very least, it looks like we’ll still get Storm-Roode at BFG, even if it’s not for the World title.

Miss Tessmacher defeated Tara to retain the TNA Knockout’s Title (pinfall, rollup)

This was followed by Aries beating up a guy from Aces and Eights, who I’m pretty sure wasn’t actually the guy who broke his arm or even the same guy who was presented on Thursday as the man who did so. After Aries hit a brainbuster, Aces and Eights rushed the ring, followed by the locker room. In the chaos, Jeff Hardy was injured by Aces and Eights, with Bully Ray jusssst a bit late making the save. Hmmm…
Zema Ion defeated Sonjay Dutt to retain the TNA X Division Title (pinfall, Gory Bomb)

RVD defeated Magnus (pinfall, Five-Star Frog Splash)

Kazarian and Christopher Daniels defeated AJ Styles and Kurt Angle (Kaz pinned Styles, Appletini to the face)

Jeff Hardy defeated Bully Ray to win the BFG Series (pinfall, Swanton)

As interesting a concept it was to have Jeff wrestle the whole match with one working arm, the match was pretty bad to watch, and unless they’ve got something special in the mind, Hardy-Aries was the absolute last of the four potential matches I would have picked for the headliner of Bound For Glory, as there was far more intrigue with the other three guys. But, TNA’s been surprising me so far, let’s see what they’ve got in store. Plus, at least they didn’t bait-and-switch the main event, which is something I would have seen happening in the past.

As for Aces and Eights, we still know nothing and there’s currently so many potential red herrings that they’ve got to, absolutely must, have a great payoff in mind, because anything else is going to go over like a fart in church.

Last week, WWE encountered another obstacle on their path towards turning CM Punk into a heel and somehow making it a big angle that will draw money by running a show in the center of his hometown of Chicago. Well, after turning the crowd on Sheamus when they (shockingly) wouldn’t side with him against Punk, refusing to have Punk wrestle a match, and then having him align with Paul Heyman, the one guy wrestling fans would love to have around more often, the end result is…inconclusive. Maybe this week they’ll have Punk beat up a Diva in the ring. That worked for Austin, right?

Ah well, at least we have Daniel Bryan, whose Anger Management classes might be having an effect, if only people wouldn’t keep pissing him off. Presumably, he and Kane will either end up killing each other or World Tag Team champions, so I guess we’ll have to see what happens this week.

And things are going badly, fast, for Raw GM AJ, who has “lost talent” left and right (forgetting, of course, that she made the stipulation which got Jericho fired, and that Swagger isn’t really “talent”), and is now under an edict that she’s not allowed to physically touch anyone on the roster, which mostly means she can’t slap the crap out of Vicki Guerrero. Does the Board of Directors even watch the show they make ruling about? At any rate, it seems like AJ’s days as GM, and as a sane human being, may be numbered.

Meanwhile, Booker T has been forced to ban the Brogue Kick, leaving Sheamus at a distinct disadvantage heading into his match with Alberto Del Rio at Night of Champions. Fortunately, Sheamus has a submission move he’s been saving for just such an occasion. So, yeah, maybe if he beats Del Rio without his primary finisher we can all finally move on from this!

Plus, we have at least two more matches that need to be made for Night of Champions, as the US and Intercontinental titles need challengers. Presumably, we’ll find out who they’re facing tonight, on Raw!

Seriously, WWE, if you could announce those matches tonight, it would really help me get the staff roundtable up and running faster.

You Have To Have TV, Part I

Okay, TNA hasn’t updated their roster page lately. It still features several wrestlers who are no longer under contract with the company, most notably their TV Champion, Devon. The former Dudley failed to reach an agreement with TNA and is now a free agent As a result, it seems that TNA will be phasing out the Television title, mere months after attempting to make the belt a bigger part of the show by forcing it to be defending on every single Impact. Of course, the BFG Series and the Aces and Eights storyline quickly put an end to that edict, but at least the effort was there initially. The TV title will possibly go down in history as one of the strangest belts in a major wrestling company, as it survived three name changes, going from an important piece of jewelry in several stables, including the Main Event Mafia, Fourtune, Immortal, and the (very short-lived) World Elite (hey, remember when they thought Eric Young should shave his head and be a serious heel leading a faction? And people wonder why I wasn’t watching TNA until recently).

With the title’s departure from the TNA ranks, many will say that it leaves the company without a true mid-card singles title, given that the X Division is essentially considered a completely separate part of the roster these days. Of course, looking at a sample of recent TV Title holders, one would argue that calling the belt a “midcard title” would be a stretch at best. While the title history does contain luminaries like Booker T and AJ Styles, for a very long time it’s been held by low-card, JTTS-type wrestlers who I’d really only consider “midcard” if we only separated the TNA roster into “the main event” and “everyone else”. Actually, if you do that, TNA has a far deeper “main event” than WWE, so I guess that might not be a bad idea.

At any rate, whatever definition you give the TV title, it no longer truly exists, and the fact of the matter is still that TNA has no midcard singles title. And while they’ve been able to fill a good show every week, the Bound For Glory Series took up a good chunk of that and it’s now over. Even if you can hide that with the build for Bound For Glory, what with it being the biggest TNA PPV of the year, sooner or later, TNA may find that they’ve got a hole that a midcard title feud might fill quite nicely. And while the title isn’t technically necessary to create midcard feuds, it’s certainly a simple way to make sure you at least have one that’s easy to make on a whim.

You Have To Have TV, Part II: You Don’t Actually Have To Have TV

And from the other guys, WWE may or may not have refuted the rumor that the WWE Network has been, at least temporarily, mothballed in the face of them having no frigging idea how to start up a TV network and finally realizing it. So, I don’t know what’s really going to go on, and nobody’s actually saying anything, but from WWE’s perspective, they pretty much have to make this work, simply because they’ve sunk a lot of money into preparing for it. Between whatever it took to make the Panda People back off on the logo blurring, to already having Legends House in the can (and is anyone running a book on the odds that somebody who was involved in that show dies before it ever sees air?), to the staff they’ve already hired, to the work that we don’t even know about like making sure hours and hours of old footage is converted to a format for broadcast in modern systems, these are sunk costs that definitely would make stockholders stand up and take notice. This isn’t WWE Films putting out stinkers that make less than 20 grand (hello, The Day) or WWE New York being a crappy restaurant. Hell, this is not the XFL. Those were all massive failures that, at the very least, put out a product that then proceeded to tank. The WWE Network, right now, is still only a concept that they’ve thrown God-only-knows how much money at and still are no closer to even being able to announce a date that it might be available for public viewing or even start to try recovering some of that money, so that even if it is a massive loss for the company, at least they can say ” we put it out there and it didn’t work, and we got something back so it wasn’t just a giant money pit”. Right now, if the Network is truly being shelved for whatever amount of time (and regardless of what they’ve said or not said, if there’s a rumour out there, you have to believe that it’s at least been discussed to some degree), all they can do is shrug their shoulders and say “uh…we blew a crap-ton of money and have absolutely nothing to show for it”. I’m fairly sure that won’t be so good for the stock price, will it?

1. Paul Heyman It takes a special kind of talent to be so relevant to pro wrestling for so very long without having ever been an actual wrestler. It makes you wonder if there’s been a glass case with his phone number and a suitcase full of money at Stamford that says “In case we really, really, really need to save an angle, and there’s absolutely no other choice because we put all our eggs into this one, break glass”. One would also presume, in this scenario, that they already replaced that glass once this year.

2. Jeff Hardy Sure, being a general afterthought for three months until managing to sneak into the final four of the BFG Series and pulling out a massive “against all odds” win that absolutely nobody would have predicted (checks 411 Roundtable to make sure…yep, no one even picked him to beat Joe) isn’t what you’d expect for the winner of the BFG Series, but here we are.

3. Daniel Bryan We were talking about special types of characters, and they don’t get much more special than Daniel Bryan, who is the very definition of “must-see” and could become a force in pro wrestling if they let him. Of course, if they don’t, well, just take a look at his opponent on last Friday’s Smackdown.

4. Sheamus Take away his finisher, and he still finds another, and wins the match anyway. Sure, Otunga is no Del Rio, but at this point, Sheamus is a steamroller that simply can’t be stopped. Hey, that was some nice alliteration, if I do say so myself.

5. Wade Barrett Barrett’s back, and hopefully they have a plan to keep him relevant, and aren’t just planning to have him run head-first into the duel Sheamus-Orton wall at the top of the card. His short-arm elbow is at least a better finisher than Wasteland, anyway.

6. Kaz/Daniels Despite WWE and TNA being about the same level in terms of credible tag teams that anyone cares about, at least the TNA World Tag Team Champions of the World are being entertaining while still being despicable human beings. I don’t know how you can be that funny and not get cheered, but they manage it.

7. Bully Ray Ray is walking a fine line, much like the tag champs, between being the hardnosed bastard heel that made him a main event talent, and being a rallying force against Aces and Eights, as well as showing respect for the whole BFG Series. Of course, being behind the whole Aces and Eights thing in the end could shoot him pretty far away from that line really quickly…

8. Prime Time Players I’d say “why them again”, but when you look at who the other contenders were in their match, who could you honestly say is a better choice? Well, yes, a Daniel Bryan-Kane team, but we have to give that time for WWE Creative to realize how awesome it could be.

9. Jack Swagger The loss is irrelevant, it’s the post-match angle that gives me hope that Swagger’s career may finally escape the smoldering crater that it’s been in for the past couple of years. I mean, if the rumours really are true and he’ll get Johnny Ace as a manager, then he’s doomed, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

10. Zack Ryder Hey, televised TV wins! That’s…something! Okay, it’s really not, but give me this one.

Inactive List as of 09.03.12

WWE Raw

– Candace, out 15 days as of August 31st (suspension)
– Evan Bourne, out indefinitely as of March 19th (foot)

WWE SmackDown

– Mark Henry, out indefinitely as of May 1st (surgery)
– Ted Dibiase, out indefinitely as of March 7th (ankle)
– The Great Khali, out until November as of July 24th (surgery)
– Wade Barrett, out 3-4 months as of Februrary 20th (dislocated elbow)

WWE NXT

– Bray Wyatt, out six months as of July 4th (torn pectoral)

TNA

– Chris Sabin, out 6-9 months as of June 14th (ACL)
– Jesse Sorenson, out at least one year as of February 12th (spine)
– Sonjay Dutt, out 6-8 weeks as of July 8th (shoulder)
– The Pope, out 2-3 months as of August 12th (broken collarbone)

Transactions

– Beth Phoenix, RAW, out indefinitely as of September 9th (bereavement)

– Christian, SD!, out indefinitely as of September 1st (R&R)

– Luke Gallows, signed to a TNA contract

– Sonjay Dutt, TNA, returned to action at No Surrender PPV

– Wade Barrett. SD!, returned to action on September 7th Smackdown

WWE

WWE Champion: CM Punk
– 295 day reign, defeated Alberto Del Rio on November 20th (Survivor Series PPV)
– Next title defense: vs John Cena, Night of Champions PPV

World Heavyweight Champion: Sheamus
– 162 day reign, defeated Daniel Bryan on April 1st (WrestleMania XXVIII)
– Next title defense: vs Alberto Del Rio, Night of Champions PPV

WWE Intercontinental Champion: The Miz
– 49 day reign, defeated Christian on July 23rd (Raw 1000)

WWE United States Champion: Antonio Cesaro
– 22 day reign, defeated Santino Marella on August 19th (SummerSlam PPV)

WWE Tag Team Champions: Kofi Kingston and R-Truth
– 133 day reign, defeated Epico and Primo on April 30th (Raw)
– Next title defense: vs The Prime Time Players, Night of Champions PPV

WWE Divas’ Champion: Layla
– 134 day reign, defeated Nikki Bella on April 29th (Extreme Rules PPV)
– Next title defense: vs Kaitlyn, Night of Champions PPV

WWE NXT Champion: Seth Rollins
– 12 day reign, defeated Jinder Mahal to become the inaugural Champion

TNA

TNA Heavyweight Champion: Austin Aries
– 64 day reign, defeated Bobby Roode on July 8th (Destination X PPV)
– Next title defense: vs Jeff Hardy, Bound For Glory PPV

TNA World Tag Team Champions of the World: Christopher Daniels and Kazarian
– 74 day reign, defeated Kurt Angle and AJ Styles on June 28th Impact

TNA X-Division Champion: Zema Ion
– 64 day reign, defeated Kenny King, Mason Andrews, and Sonjay Dutt in an Ultimate X Match on July 8th to claim the vacant title (Destination X PPV)

TNA Knockouts Champion: Miss Tessmacher
– 25 day reign, defeated Madison Rayne on August 16th (Impact)

TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions: ODB and Eric Young
– 186 day reign, defeated Gail Kim and Madison Rayne on March 8th (Impact)

Acero has The Wrestling 5&1.

West has The 411 Pro and Con.

And the newest edition of TWNE After Dark is online, and features more debate about who might be leading Aces and Eights, whether Kane is a Hall of Famer, and initial reaction to the rumours that WWE Network might be dead. Click the banner to listen to every episode!

The next episode of TWNE After Dark will air on Thursday night at 10 pm Eastern because of my second-last Jays game of the season. We may be out of the playoffs, but we’re still better than Boston!

Also, don’t forget to join the TWNE After Dark a Facebook group. Now with random opinion polls!

411 will have live coverage of Raw tonight starting at 8 pm EDT.

From our promotional department, I’ve been informed that if you really do like 411Mania and all it provides, or even just me (and really, who doesn’t like me), don’t forget to bookmark the site in your browser or make 411 your homepage, and tell all your friends about how awesome 411 is.

And don’t forget, you can follow all of the everyday goings on in 411 on Twitter.

Stephen’s Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma

That’s our show, Marsico is in tomorrow, I will be back next week. Plus, don’t forget to look for Four Player Co-op in the Games Zone on Wednesday, and the TWNE After Dark podcast at 10 pm EDT this Thursday as well!

Here it is, your Moment of Buddy

Buddy Is Not Yet Prepared For Some Football

Have a good one, and always be a fan.