The Wrestling 5&1 1.26.13: Maryse vs. Stacy Keibler

We are two weeks away from the spectacle of it all, the showcase of the immortals, the…whatever else you want to call it! Has the build been good to you? I, personally haven’t liked it, but we’ll get to that next week!

BRING ON THE GIRLS!

The Versus Royal Rumble
With Tony Acero

INTRODUCE BANG/UPDATE

Stacy is the chick that will not quit, as she beat someone I thought she was going to lose to for sure! In another hard fought battle, Stacy has come out the winner and is now in the number three position!

She faces Maryse in what is sure to be a battle of boobs vs legs, and really dudes, who wins in that one? We do!

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Last week in The Wrestling 5&1…

Absolute waste of Jericho for Mania. Why did he even bother coming back if he puts no one decent over or has an awesome match?
How about Cesaro/Jericho so we can at least get a good match out of it?
Ziggler vs Danielson is always a welcome sight, even though 1/2 the time they’ll be busy being pinballs for Kane and Langston.
I really hope they have some big Wargames Style match against the Shield, some way in which the Shield can be divided and then conquered. They can’t lose as a unit as it destroys the well built credibility they have created for themselves.
I really just want Brock to rip through Triple H. Triple H doesn’t need to win, even if it’s for ‘redemption’. He has to go away. They lose Flair, HBK, and Triple H and none of them put over anybody new for the past 5 years. That’s ridiculous. – Mr. Ace Crusher

I’m really torn with Jericho’s return, because I think he is at a point where he handpicks his opponents. There may very well be something that we don’t know in regards to Fandango. Personally, I think it’s retarded, but there are small signs of a character that could be a great annoying heel. I’m not sold on it, not by a long shot, but I see something. As for Cesaro/Jericho, yeah, I’d go for that definitely. I’m really excited about the possibilities of Ziggler and Bryan going at it for any length of time. Kane has been solid for quite some time now, and the only wild card here is Langston. I’ve seen him maybe once or twice, and he didn’t impress, but he didn’t look dumb either. As for The Shield, I think even if they lose this one, we’ve not seem the last of them. The important thing is what they do afterwards. Finally, I’ll get to Triple H and Brock next week. Thanks for reading!

The Shield is terrible. Aces & 8’s haven’t been the best booked, but they’re the biggest angle in wrestling. The Shield are an afterthought. Acting like they’re a big deal is ridiculous. They’re an opening/midcard stable that has had a handful of matches. – NCT

While you’re entitled to your opinion, I’ll have to respectfully disagree. Your beloved Aces & Eights have lost a lot of traction throughout their time of being a stable, and have only just got some of it back. The Shield has been consistently intriguing, and tangoed with main event talent AND midcard talent alike.

In general, the response to my Scott Hall piece was very interesting. A few of you actually put a bit of yourself into the comments – much more than I’ve seen before on this site, and that really blew my mind. To those that posted with actual stories, I was both intrigued and appreciative of you stepping out of the anonymity that the internet lends to you and putting yourself out there for trolls to attack. Luckily for us at the 5&1, we’ve got a pretty solid group. I appreciate the candor, and thank you.

Speaking of comments! I got a very interesting e-mail, and considering it wasn’t addressed to just me, I figured I’d toss it in the column for all to see and give my own response at the bottom.

Dear IWC,

Of which I am a card carrying member since 1998. I’m no columnist, I’m not even a great writer, but I’ve had this on my chest for a while and thought maybe I’d take a stab at getting it out there and hope at least one person will have their mind changed by my words.

For so long I have come to sites like 411 and just seen people complain. PG SUCKS, TNA FAIL, etc., you know I feel that this is what is wrong with wrestling, we are what is wrong with wrestling. As so called fans, of which I am hoping you are fans if not, then why even give wrestling sites hits? We need to support all wrestling, not one company, not one wrestler, but all companies and wrestlers we are able to.

As someone who went through training I can say the men and women who go out there every night, do it because they have a passion for it, they do it for us. We should support them, not take advantage of them.

I’ve followed wrestling since I can remember. From watching with my dad in the early 90s to the NWO/Attitude era in my 7-12 years and through the ruthless aggression of early teens to the Triple H/Smackdown 6 of my late teens on up to the Cena era of my 18-26 years now, I grew up a WCW fan but never attacked the WWF, heck I watched them both, the more wrestling the better. Now don’t get me wrong there where sides then you with WCW or WWF much like being Indy or WWF today (since the vast majority seems to hate on TNA) but the thing was people watched and supported both at the same time regardless of the side you preffered.

Today people call you a mark (which by the way WE ALL ARE MARKS OR WE WOULDN’T BE WATCHING) like it’s a bad thing. We are all marks; I remember being a little 4 year old marking for Hogan, Savage, and Sting. When I started training I marked for my trainers the first time I saw them wrestle. Being a mark is the same as being a fan, and I restate we should be a mark for all wrestling.

The reason I made the connection of the 90s with today is this, back then we devoured wrestling, WWF, WCW, ECW, if it was on you watched it, heck I watched CMLL and AAA on Galavision when I was like 13, because it was wrestling. We often complain how wrestling isn’t the same, and yes some fault lies with the writers, and the white washed style we see today, which on a side note, PG or MA or what have you don’t matter ECW wasn’t great because of the blood and boobs, but because of good story telling around it. The Attitude era wasn’t great because of swearing and blood but because of good story telling(it for sure wasn’t because of the good matches, go watch a random RAW from like 98, most matches are no longer then 6 minutes and almost all have run ins)

So as wrestling fans we should put away the stupid whiny comments, the stupid TNA SUCKS on every story, even ones that don’t have anything to do with TNA, yes they make some bad choices, but I long for them to start running smooth on all parts, so we have some good alternatives, which will make WWE better, which should hopefully get TNA even better, which will bring a bigger shine on ROH for being the biggest alternative, which will guess what? Blow up the wrestling culture like the late 90s again, if not better then them.

So in closing I implore you to put away the whine, watch like a mark again, enjoy the good, groan and laugh at the bad, but shine the focus on the good, and a challenge, once a week go on youtube and find some company or wrestler you’ve never had a chance to see, and check them out. The indies are our future, so support your local companies and any others you can. Local indies are usually a good show, and only about 10 bucks 5 for kids, not bad for three hours of entertainment, about the same price for going to the movies, but you can be as noisy as you want.

Sincerely,
The Saint

My response to you, Saint, lies below:

First off, thanks for writing and reading. We here at the 5&1 appreciate it. After reading your open letter, my immediate response was that you said “mark” too many times. All kidding aside, although your argument is valid, there are a few points I think that us jaded wrestling fans tend to have in our holster as a retort for such arguments. I’d like to point out that although I have been known to complain about any number of things in wrestling, there is always a logical explanation, and I have learned over the years that all of my issues with the product point towards one direction: the writing.

As a writer, this bothers me. I love this product, we all do. This is why we whine. We are so deeply entrenched in this product that we want it to succeed. Sometimes, “success” is seen more with one’s own set of eyes than that of the larger society, but for the most part we, the IWC, agree on the same issues. To your point, people don’t like the PG Era – not because of lack of blood or boobs, but because the storylines have suffered due to lack of blood or boobs. They were a means to an end. Sometimes that end wasn’t what we wanted, most of the times it was. You claim that we should put away our whiney comments, but I disagree. In fact, I love the whiney comments, and have made some of my own. These do not exist in a vacuum, there are reasons for it. After all, if I had nothing but positive things to say a) this column would be boring and b) there’d be very little to talk about.

Even in your argument, you point out flaws of the very product that you are telling us not to judge and just enjoy. I venture to say that everyone – literally EVERYONE – reading this will be watching Mania, whether it be buying, going to a bar, downloading, etc. THAT’s love for a product. The readers who come to this site daily, who read a dude named Tony Acero, they are not fans of me, or of my writing. No, they are fans of wrestling.

So, in closing, although I find that you make a solid point, it will most likely be looked over because the truth is, we are fans. We will most likely always be fans. And as fans, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure this product that we love, this stupid ass, son-of-a-bitch having, reason Mondays are loved product is successful. The IWC is full of personality, and although we don’t always get along, we have one vested unity; wrestling.

You Decide: Do you agree with The Saint?

Greg DeMarco Show with Nikki Roxx, presented by SportsRants.com
Hosts: Greg DeMarco and Patrick O’Dowd
Airs Sundays at 10pm eastern time on SportsRantz Radio at sportsrantz.com/radio

Link to listen: CLICK HERE

Nikki Roxx joined The Greg DeMarco Show to discuss her time in TNA, Shimmer Women’s Athletes, and her new fitness venture BonRoxx Fitness.

On the impact of Shimmer Wrestling on women’s wrestling:
“It gave us a way to display that girls don’t just do catfights…we’re not just managers…we actually get in there and we can actually go. It was nice to have that and to have people see it. The crowd that’s there is just amazing.”

On her reaction when TNA pitched the idea of shaving her head:
“We had kinda heard that they were looking for someone to do it…I thought about it and I didn’t really see what the big deal is. … I think the funniest part is when they approached me, I had asked ‘How much are you guys going to pay me to do it’ and their response was ‘Oh, you want to be paid to do that?’ I actually enjoyed doing it, they were the ones who actually made me grow my hair back. They wanted me to get extensions [before it grew back].”

On the “No Carpet/No Curtains” shirt she wore after shaving her head:
“They had no idea what that meant for so many months, and then finally someone—I think it was Dixie—said ‘Oh, she can’t wear that on TV!'”

On declining an invitation to appear on the all-Knockout PPV special:
“You can only get kicked so many times. … I think that I had finally had enough. They had trouble treating me very well to begin with and I felt like I was being a glutton for punishment every time I went back. … I felt like it was the right time to tell them no. It was like one of those bad relationships where you keep trying to get away from it. … You can’t treat people badly and then hope that they’ll come back and hang out. … A lot of the girls I’ve spoken to turned them down.”

On the pay for a TNA Knockout:
“I absolutely loved being a part of it. … I loved being a part of history [with the division]. That being said, I feel like they are not sure how to treat their employees. … There were multiple times where someone was working a day job while being on TV. You’re supposed to be an international TV star but you’re having to get a job tending bar or working at a Sunglass Hut. … From my experience I would see that was straight across the board [not just limited to Knockouts]. … They weren’t very biased about it.”

Nikki also talks about how she broke into the business, her training with Killer Kowalski’s wrestling school, the number of times she was the challenger for TNA’s Knockouts Championship, her involvement on competitive fitness modeling, her newest venture BonRoxx Fitness and their upcoming breast cancer awareness & fundraising event, “Search For The Tatas” (more information can be found at www.bonroxxfitness.com).

This week’s loaded show also includes DeMarcette interviews with ROH’s Veda Scott, OVW’s Jessie Belle, former WWE/NXT/FCW Diva Su Yung, Terra Calaway, Barbi Hayden and Allie Parker.

Follow the show on Twitter at @gregdemarcoshow
For more information, visit The DeMarco Show on Facebook!

After Monday’s RAW confirmed many WrestleMania 29 matches, and Tuesday’s Smackdown tapings did little to establish anything new, I can adjust my projected WrestleMania 29 card.
What will the WWE when it rolls into MetLife Stadium? Take a look…

Confirmed
WWE Championship: The Rock (champion) vs. John Cena
CM Punk vs. The Undertaker
No Holds Barred with Triple H’s Career On The Line – Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H
World Heavyweight Championship – Alberto Del Rio (champion) vs. Jack Swagger
The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns) vs. Randy Orton, Sheamus & The Big Show
Mark Henry vs. Ryback
WWE Tag Team Championship – Team Hell No (Kane & Daniel Bryan, champions) vs. Dolph Ziggler & Big E Langston

Projected
Brodus Clay, Tensai, Naomi, Cameron, Kaitlyn & Maria Menounos vs. Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, Nikki & Brie Bella, Layla & Tamina
Wade Barrett vs. Antonio Cesaro vs. The Miz
Chris Jericho vs. Fandango

This would give us 10 matches, which makes for a packed card. But with four hours to play with, the WWE can pull this off. I could see even more talent getting added to the 12-person tag match, giving people like The Prime Time Players, Zack Ryder, 3MB, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Primo & Epico and Rosa Mendes something to do. Oh, and Sin Cara. Why not, right?

You can expect someone to get pulled from this fiasco and moved to the preshow. At least, I sincerely hope Chris Jericho isn’t moved to the preshow with Fandango!

You Decide: Is this the Wrestlemania you want to see?

By Justin Freemyer

It was a cold, wet morning in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2002 on the eve of WrestleMania 18 as I was standing in line talking to fans as I was waiting to get into Fan Axxess when I heard to craziest thing I’d ever heard as a fan.

“Did you hear that they going to split the WWF roster up and make Raw and Smackdown two separate shows?”

I was in great shock over this idea and didn’t believe this voodoo this guy was spewing out, I did ponder on this radical idea for quite some time and just couldn’t take it seriously at the time. But, wrestling at that time was changing, just a year ago WCW had closed it’s doors and ECW took its final VanDaminator to the grave. The question then was, where would all that talent go? If they wanted to stay in the big times, there was only place to go and that was the “E”. Wrestle Mania x-8 went down and it was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever been to of all time. Then just 48 hours later in Montreal at Monday Night Raw in one of the biggest Raws of the year, what I was told 337 miles ago was a reality…

Linda mcmahon announces the brand extension by JaYK08

The rumor was true! The brand extension did go down and it helped many past and present WWE superstars explore new heights and become very successful. Two men that I think really benefited for that were John Cena and Randy Orton. CM Punk was another example, he came in through ECW and worked his way into Raw and Smackdown and look at him now. At first I didn’t like the brand extension, I hated it, but it grew on me. Raw of course was the flagship, while Smackdown was more of a wrestling based show that showcased also more younger talent that would eventually make their way to Monday Nights.

But what if the brand extension never took place? Would this talent along with many more ever get a chance? WWE did survive did the Monday Night Wars because of one thing, and that was that they brought in new stars and elevated their current mainstays. Do you think WWE would of stayed fresh in their match-ups and programs? Do you think with the influx of new talent coming in that the old guys would want to give up their spot? I think WWE would have still been on the top of their game, but what we might of saw between the years of 2002-2011 would have been very different. I mean the things the fans saw during the era of Raw and Smackdown being separate brands was great. One of my favorite moments in the 2004 draft lottery when Triple H got drafted to Smackdown–although it was short-lived, it was indeed hilarious though.

In late 2011, around Summer Slam the line I think started to get blurred as far the brand extension went. Yes, Raw and Smackdown is still their own shows, but the differences are very little compared to what it used to be and for sure the days of exclusive talent is pretty much over. But many more questions arise if WWE didn’t make this move…

You Decide: Who would be WWE’s golden goose? Would it be John Cena? Where would WWE be?

Listen to internet radio with Wrestling Smash on Blog Talk Radio

You Decide: What is your projected Wrestlemania card?

About The Greg DeMarco Show:
Greg DeMarco isn’t just a must-read wrestling analyst (via http://www.411wrestling.com and http://www.bleacherreport.com) with a copious amount of sound bites on his show. Greg brings several years of experience within the wrestling business—as well as eight years of stand-up and improvisational comedy experience—to the masses each week.

He’s joined each week by best friend “The Wrestling Realist” Patrick O’Dowd. Not just another sidekick, Patrick balances hard-hitting commentary with an innate ability to provoke Greg in ways that very few can. These two best friends collaborate to provide the most entertaining wrestling program on the planet, and do so while breaking down the product in ways that no one else can.

The Greg DeMarco Show is streams LIVE each Tuesday night at 10 pm eastern/7 pm pacific at SmashWrestling.com or on the show’s Blog Talk Radio channel blogtalkradio.com/gregdemarco.

You can reach the show via e-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook by searching for “Greg DeMarco Show.”

Hit up the ‘Mania on the TWITTER (so Ashish will like me, okay?)

http://www.twitter.com/411mania
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And 1 Model of the Week
with Tony Acero

I always had a thing for Joy.

Get reading!

Randle’s Wrestling News Experience!
The Tuesday Communique with Nick Marsico!
Kelly’s Thursday Sports Entertainment News!
Fact or Fiction featuring Profirio Diaz vs Trent Howell and some pissed off commentersl!

Tony Acero presents The Low End Theory!

Plenty to talk about in the comments!
Do you agree with The Saint?
Is Wrestlemania shaping up to be great?
And don’t forget about the Versus—Maryse vs Stacy Keibler!!

Until next time…

Find Tony:
Twitter: @TonyAcero411
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Wrestling Smash: Read more of my stuff!