Shining a Spotlight 12.15.11: 2011’s Lumps of Coal

The Summer of Punk becomes the Fall of Mediocrity: I’m more than used to wrestling dropping perfect setups, it’s happened plenty of times over the years. Yet for even WWE, their ultimate bungling of the CM Punk storyline ticked me off, especially after I wrote about having high hopes for it. It was great with Punk making noises about leaving, doing “shoot” promos on how bland WWE was and wanting ice cream bars and such, then managing to beat Cena in Chicago to win the belt on his last night. Then Punk doing stuff like confronting HHH at Comic Con and other bits, making it look as real as you could with Punk the renegade while WWE tried to fill the slot. Then they started to mess it up, Punk brought back after only a month and then losing the belt to Del Rio cashing in after Kevin Nash interfered. Punk has the belt now but watching WWE blow such an amazing opportunity really stuck in the craw of fans this year.

Not so Victorious Road: Possibly the lowest point of TNA of the year (which is saying something), the main event of “Victory Road” was to be Sting defending the TNA World title against Jeff Hardy. It was clear Jeff was in absolutely no shape whatsoever to compete, stumbling down the ramp to the ring and then he and Sting beating up Eric Bischoff when the man tried to call the match off. We then had a minute of incredibly lame action until Sting hits a single move and got the pin in only a minute of action. Even the usually biased TNA crowd was chanting “bullshit!” and you couldn’t really blame them. To have this as the main event of a PPV was a huge rip-off to fans and a big blow for TNA.

Edge’s Retirement: You can make a case that some of the chaos of WWE was due to something totally out of their control. We knew Edge had been through a lot of injuries over the year, especially with his neck. Yet it was still stunning when he announced that his condition was far more serious than anyone knew and his doctors recommended immediate retirement. What at first seemed a work was all too real and thus we lost not only a fantastic worker and mic guy but one of WWE’s most dependable top-notch stars, a loss that the company never really recovered from. It also led to…

Christian’s Short Reign: After years in Edge’s shadow, Christian finally got his chance to shine for WWE when Edge had to leave. He had the heat of the crowd with him and the rub from Edge so when he won the title at Extreme Rules, he seemed ready for a long reign. So you can imagine the reaction when just two days later, he lost the belt to Orton on SmackDown. True, the crowd was on Orton’s side but for WWE to drop the ball so badly on this was mind-boggling. It led to a heel turn and another short reign but the initial bait-and-switch put a very sour taste in the mouths of many fans.

Psycho Sting: I like Sting. He’s a great worker, great talker, a true icon in the business. And yes, everyone needs to shake up the act now and then. But sometimes people go a bit too far and that was the case here. The idea of Sting pushed to the extreme by Immortal was good. Having him suddenly take on an act that was basically Jim Carrey doing the Joker wasn’t. It just came off really annoying and time-wasting and the fact he just dropped it all instantly after Bound for Glory made it more of a waste and one of the more bizarre touches of TNA this year.

HHH vs Undertaker: I know I’ll hear it for this one. I did when the match aired at Wrestlemania, all those saying this was a five star classic railing at me. But I stand by what I said, this was an immense letdown. Poorly paced, both guys being out of character (HHH yelling at Taker to get up rather than go for a pin), obviously padded, nowhere near the epic encounter it should have been on the biggest show of the year. That so many people claim it to be a classic is incredible to me and shows how fans can easily let the star power of two guys blind them to how poor a match really is.

Matt Hardy’s Fall: At the beginning of the year, who would have guessed that Jeff would be seen as the more put-together Hardy brother? Matt’s fall has been painful, from his short TNA runs that included poor matches and reports of backstage problems that led to his eventual release. But things went rock-bottom with him making a You Tube post that sounded for all the world like a suicide note, then revealing it was part of a “rebirth” bit. To put his fans through such worry just to push himself is selfishness to a degree unheard of and destroys much of the man’s legacy with fans.

Eric Young: Eric Young has been a reliable guy with a fun comedic style. But even his talents can only go so far and given so much time. Putting the TV title on him was a waste of a secondary belt as rather than defend it, we got weeks of Young out in Hollywood, “challenging” TV stars and getting into a brawl with Scott Baio at a golf course. I can’t believe I just wrote that. Then a feud with Robbie E, of all people, putting what should be a decent title in a feud with two absolute morons, hardly the way to sell it. And don’t get me started on the Turkey match…

Irony, Thy Name is Kharma: Another shake-up that can’t totally be blamed on WWE. It looked so good: The Awesome Kong finally signed on, named Kharma and then pushed as a monster ready to destroy the Divas. But, in one of the worst cases of bad timing imaginable, Kharma then revealed she was pregnant just as she was about to take it to the big time. It was a blow to the plans for the Divas and while WWE can be commended for not just releasing her (and you can’t fault Kharma for wanting to achieve her dream of motherhood), still bad to see a promising angle wrecked by poor timing.

Angle’s Legal Dramas: WWE guys are no saints, we know that. Yet it is amazing how TNA is sticking with guys with multiple legal problems, arrests and more. For Kurt Angle, it hurts to see a man who was such an amazing worker and presence constantly getting arrested for DUIs and such. It hurts more that TNA continues to push him hard, ignoring his very real troubles and personal issues, enabling rather than helping a man who clearly needs a long time off to handle himself before he’s ready to continue putting on great matches.

Cole’s Spotlight: There’s nothing wrong with giving a heel announcer extra time to showcase being a jerk. But devoting long segments of RAW and actual PPV matches to Michael Cole and his antics is really pushing it. Yes, the guy is great having folks hate him but did we really need the months-long angle of him and Lawler doing various matches and taking up promo time just annoyed the hell out a lot of fans and made you wonder why WWE would waste so much time on this.

Kevin Nash: I’ve read various guys who do wrestling radio shows who say that Nash comes off as a really funny guy you can’t help but like. That no doubt explains how, in 2011, Nash was able to not only convince WWE to hire him back but got put into a major angle costing Punk the title. Given his almost complete lack of mobility and legendary ability to become injured, giving him a push was ludicrous and the fan reaction hasn’t been that good, leaving Nash with yet another black mark on his already long legacy.

Sin Cara: It’s one thing for some heavily hyped new face to fall flat, that happens a lot. But the former Mistico has hit nothing but bad luck in his WWE tenure. Injuries, suspension for breaking the wellness policy, that stupid “evil double” angle and all of it met with fan apathy, marring what might have been a fresh talent in the mix and instead just another “oh, this guy again?” feeling the company doesn’t need.

TNA’s Title Storm: I know some still defend this and maybe it all worked out in the end. But it’s still one of the craziest booking decisions I’ve seen in a while. After spending months setting up Robert Roode as the new guy of TNA, nice vignettes and promos, it all seemed perfect for Roode to beat Angle for the belt at Bound for Glory. Instead, Angle gets the pin, making Roode look like a loser. Two nights later, James Storm beats Angle in a one-minute match to win the title, throwing fans for a loop. Then Roode beats Storm for the belt, turning heel in the process. The big issue is how TNA took a program that could have run for months and rushed it in two weeks, a prime example of the ultra-fast booking style that hurts wrestling a lot today.

Goodbye 24/7: Man, this one hurts. Whether called On Demand or WWE 24/7, this cable channel was a dream for old-school wrestling fans. From the Monday Night Wars to classic MSG shows, NWA, AWA, World Class and more, presented as they once were, giving newer fans a terrific look back at how wrestling was. Not to mention great stuff like the Legends Roundtables of guys shooting straight on the past. True, the upcoming new network might have much of the same stuff but still a shame to lose this fantastic vault of wrestling history.

Super Hate’s Beating: The stuff on this list is mostly quiet things, dumb but in the end, not truly harmful. This, however, is something else, something that puts a black eye on all of wrestling. What at first sounded like an angle turned out to be all too true as Nobukazu “Super Hate” Hirai got into a fight with TARU before a show in Japan, TARU’s buddies helping beat down Hirai. This led to the man suffering a real stroke requiring surgery, left comatose for months afterward. All Japan came down hard with suspensions for all involved and the resignation of Keiji Mutoh as president of the promotion, which still seems a small price for such a brutal crime. A horrible incident that shows the worst parts of Japan’s “treat it as real” belief in wrestling and shows how you can’t take this so seriously.