wrestling / Columns
The Wrestling 5 & 1 11.16.13: Summer Rae vs. Audrey Marie
Things are heating up!! Ok, not really, but did y’all see that interaction between The Shield and The Wyatts?! AWESOME!! My heart hurts, though, fellas, as news just came out that AJ collapsed at a House Show. I told her not to go; I told her I had bad vibes, but you know her….
Anyways, this week, we got a reader that went way beyond what I asked of him so much that we had to break his segment into two pieces! Well, that, and I have been in a bit of a bind for time this past week (what kind of professor gives out a midterm with like three weeks left of school, anyway!?) Aside from that, we’ve got the lovely ladies, and some more wrasslin talk.
The Heyman Hypothesis
By Tony Acero
Paul Heyman is lauded as one of the best – if not THE best men on the stick and in a managerial role. He’s one of the few that I’ve seen loved by IWC and regular fans alike. Of course, by love, I mean completely loathe from a character standpoint. He is also known as one of the greater minds in the business. All of these praises we have for the man, and yet I find myself sitting here wondering just what the hell he was thinking (or the writers were thinking) teaming him up with Ryback and/or Curtis Axel. I recall the quick (and cheap?) heat that Heyman got when we realized he was going to announce his next “Heyman Guy” and the rush of excitement that the internet felt. We assumed it had to be someone in NXT, and it had to be one of those indy darlings we all loved. Was it going to be Ohno? The former El Generico? Paige?!?! We didn’t know, but it was exciting!!!
Then the reveal happens and we get…
Now before you ask, the answer is no, no he will never live that down, and I will never forget that “moment.” Axel took the wind out of the sails when he was announced and although he holds that prestigious white belt around his waist, I’d be a lyin fool if I said he’s done it any justice. Moreover, his “good matches” are few and far between. More often than not, he’s as boring in the ropes as he is on the mic. I suppose that’s not too big of a deal considering his mouth piece is the man who spits gold when he speaks, but in the months that he’s been a Heyman guy, Axel has done little to impress and has instead, continued to do his best Anchorman impression while holding in a chinlock.
Then we get to the meathead known as Ryback, who – for what seemed like thirty two years – did nothing but squash insignificant jobbers, thereby making me care less about him than I do about JTG. Although never officially a “Heyman Guy,” (what’s up with leavin Pauly on his knee, jerk?) Ryback was damn near one by proximity and stunk up the joint moreso than Axel did. Both men had solid matches with Punk, but the characters were hardly ever believable as anything but the means to an end. And that end? Seeing Heyman get caned atop a cage. Sure, it was fun, but what did it really do?
I suppose we shouldn’t complain too much, considering we are always harping on their inability to create new stars. No, we should be happy that Axel got a chance, and that Ryback was able to gain a few months’ worth of PPV paydays, but the moniker of “Heyman Guy” really held much more weight and when I think about it, I’m not 100% sure why. What I do know, however, is when I see Heyman stand next to Brock Lesnar, it works – and Lesnar is a beast of a beast. When I see Heyman stand next to CM Punk, it works, and Punk is the Best of the Best. When I see Heyman stand next to Axel and Ryback? I see him more frontal than they ever will be.
You Decide: Does the label of a “Heyman Guy” hold any importance anymore?
Battle of the Bryan
By Joseph Zeug
Ok first off, for those who don’t know me, let me give you guys a tiny bit of background about myself. I’m a long time lurker of the 411wrestling.com site for years…like well before when Tony Acero was an infant and I can clearly remember watching All American Wrestling on the USA network when Sgt. Slaughter was defending the title against the Iron Sheik in 1982. I’m normally on the YES! YES! YES! Facebook page spouting off random posts, and Tony asked me to write this because he promised me a 1lb. bag of Clancy Pretzel sticks. I’ll do almost anything for pretzels. I feel so dirty now.
So…what did he ask me to write about and guest spot on this week’s 5&1? Well, recently with the past couple of months, I was just starting to get back into wrestling again and things were getting interesting. Why? The first reason was this…John Cena got injured. Now, I hate to see any wrestler get seriously hurt, (you don’t want to see people get seriously hurt) but in this case, with Cena hurt, it opened the doors for Daniel Bryan to take over the top spot. Now many didn’t think he could do it, but sure enough he proved a lot of people wrong. You notice how the entire stadium was cheering for him? 
This wasn’t the mixed reaction Cena got, oh no, Daniel got everyone behind him. So WWE did the story line with Daniel fighting against the McMahons and HHH, and it got really good! And you could sense the start of something…which I’ll get into bit later here.
Quickly fast forward to this past Monday’s Raw. I watched…maybe an hour of it at most as I kept flipping channels to different stuff. Why? Because as I watched it, from my POV, it was the same hashed up crap I’ve seen on and off for the past couple of decades. To me, it’s the same good guys, fighting the same bunch of heels. And then it smacked me in the face. As of recently, other than the Wyatt family, there are really no new guys in the roster. There’s not much to look forward to and that’s when it hit me. There is a lot of older blood in the WWE in which guys that have been in wrestling for 5+ years or longer and that’s not so bad in itself, but with no new guys brought up, the older wrestlers do not have new blood to wrestle against to keep it interesting.
Have you noticed with John back, he’s now gotten the WHC as soon as he returned and now Big Show has a title shot with Randy Orton for the Raw WWE Championship? Where’s Daniel Bryan? Oh sure he main evented for the Raw show this past Monday, but he’s not in the title hunt anymore. And with John Cena back, in my opinion, everything reverted back to just before he got injured in August, except Daniel is now out of the title picture. 
What is the WWE doing here? It’s like nothing happened! If they move Daniel away from the title picture, then in essence, it really IS that they think Danny boy isn’t really worthy of the title whatsoever. Because of what? He didn’t sell more PPV buys while Cena was gone? And now Cena’s back so they can skip over Daniel and what they created in probably the first really decent storyline I think maybe this year? What does that say for creative writing for the WWE?
Kaitlyn is finally shut down! Maria takes the win, and keeps her spot, placing Kaitlyn at the bottom row where Layla used to reside (Image to be updated this week!). So who, in this wonderful wrestling world of women, can we throw into the ring next? How about we dig deep into the NXT ranks and pull out some lovely ladies! Sure, one may not be there anymore but let’s not pretend we haven’t stretched our definition within the HOB before, ey?
And now…..
Voting ends Wednesday night and you can vote once every hour!
We Need A Fix
By Joseph Zeug
Let’s take a good look at how to do a decent hero for example…do you know why Daniel Bryan was and is so currently liked right now? Because he’s smaller and while he might get beat up more, he’s a tough bastard and he keeps getting back up. Now…who does that remind you off? Think hard for a bit. A lot like…Stone Cold Steve Austin perhaps? Why? Well, look at Stone Cold’s attempts at his chase at the title picture. Try as Steve might, he was screwed by the Corporation, HHH, the McMahons, the Rock who went Corporate and sold out on Steve, and almost every time, Steve would get close, week after week of getting a shot at the title. And he’d lose a lot, but sometimes he won. He’d get shafted out of the title because of some rule, or disqualification, or technicality, while HHH held the title and Steve chased it over and over. And when Steve did win it, he’d lose it really quickly and HHH would have it right back again for months on end, taunting Steve to get the title. SCSA lost more times than he won and got his ass beat repeatedly or cheated or whatever to where he’d lose. But he kept after the title over and over. And the crowd ate that crap up like it was candy, because Stone Cold was a tough SOB, and he got back up over and over and he never stopped chasing the title. Now compare that to Daniel Bryan. It’s an almost exact match.
But put that with today’s writing and you rarely see it there. Oh sure there’s a glimpse here or there, but in reality, it’s the same hashed up crap, but for today, it’s even more watered down than ever. There’s no new real blood. There’s no new decent material for Creative to do. And what’s worse, WWE pushes the older talent, while the newer talent is relegated to B card wrestling or they get a quick run at the title and then lose it, when they should be pushed. I could go on and on about how both WWE and their Creative writers misses opportunity after opportunity but that’s most likely for another article. The bottom line is the WWE has nothing new now. It’s old and stale in my opinion. 
And quite frankly, there needs to be massive changes. In decisions, writing, bringing in fresher, new wrestlers/talent to keep things interesting, and in pushing newer wrestlers before some of the older talent. Until they do that, the WWE will be old and stale as it normally has been. Oh sure there might have been a minor blimp on the radar here and there, aka CM Punk redoing his Summer of Punk speech, or Daniel Bryan, but it’s just back to old stale business for the WWE as usual. Or maybe I’m talking out of my ass as usual. Oh well, I still should be getting a bag of pretzels out of it that is unless Tony and Larry are too cheap at 411wrestling.com.
Anyway, I’m Joseph Zeug, and that’s how this old fart sees it. And thanks for reading 411wrestling.com. You’ve made the right choice in wrestling website brainwashing. 😉
You Decide: What do you think the WWE needs to do to help fix things to make them interesting once again? What steps do you feel the WWE need to do to help breathe new life into the WWE?
And the commenter with the most “likes”???
Nick “Fury” DeMichael: “Insert AJ and Tony comment because I like likes…”
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Want to enter? Caption this picture:
With the Survivor Series PPV coming up soon, I thought I’d ask which team is your favorite. I chose a random five, so your answer may not be here – and in the case that it isn’t, feel free to add your own!
I believe I owe you fellas some “STEMS?” And in case you were wondering if she still looks good in 2013, please refer to the right hand picture (and not your right hand…)
Tony joined 411Mania in April 2010, and currently contributes in both music and wrestling. Tony is an avid drinker of Mountain Dew and Jack Daniels. He is a writer who hardly takes himself seriously, yet has an innate ability to create moments that are both human yet fearful in his writings.
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HALL OF FAME
Greg DeMarco is a graduate of Virginia Tech (Bachelor’s in Business Management) and Arizona State (Master’s in Higher & Post-Secondary Education). He works in online higher education. Greg started in improv comedy in 2001, making his stand-up debut in 2004.
Greg first appeared as a ring announcer for Rising Phoenix Wrestling in Phoenix Arizona in 2006 and served many promotions in both on-stage and back-stage roles for over six years, most notably Ring of Honor in 2010. He began writing for 411Mania in October 2010, founded The Greg DeMarco Show in May 2011 and opened WrestlingSmash.com (and Wrestling Smash Radio) in January 2013.
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Until next week…
