The Friday Supplement: 1.6.12: Champions In Retrospect (Part Two-A) + The Best and Worst of 2011 (Part Two)

I found some extra time (we’ll call it late-nite-not-tired o’clock) and decided that my energy would be best utilized by finishing up the loose ends left around from 2011 and free myself up to get back to the wonderful world of one column a week discussing the latest goings-on in the world of professional wrestling. My final semester (12 years in the making!) of school is coming up in less than 2 weeks and I’ll have plenty of writing to do for that. This is cathartic writing, sure, but I am only one man and I am a generally exhausted one man who finds more catharsis in making his 5-year-old son smile and laugh than in writing a second column full of lusciously linked literary love for the… uh… readers of this fine establishment. So. Look down!

Henry wrestled what may be considered the match of his life when he defeated Randy Orton. He would now have to continue to do the same in order to hold onto the belt that he sought after for so many years.

v. Randy Orton (Hell in a Cell match, Hell in a Cell 10/2/2011)

Most people expected Mark Henry to be a roadblock or a bump in the road for Randy Orton and nothing more. The World’s Strongest Champion stepped inside the cell and took Randy Orton for a ride and dominated the former champion. Orton got his shots in and was even able to finally hit Henry with the RKO, but to the shock and surprise of everyone, Henry was able to kick out of his challenger’s most powerful maneuver. With nothing left in his tank, Orton stepped back and readied himself to punt Mark Henry’s head off his shoulders, but it was not to happen on this night. Orton ran across the ring and suddenly found himself in the air for a split second before his body went splat on the canvas. Mark Henry nailed the World’s Strongest Slam and would remain World Heavyweight Champion after his night in hell.

v. Randy Orton (SmackDown 10/14/2011)

Theodore R. Long, always looking to one-up everybody else and please the fans, decided that he needed to book the largest battle royal ever, so he threw 41 men out into the ring and gave them the incentive of a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship later on in the evening. All others were sadly unable to take advantage at this possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as Randy Orton proved himself to be at least one level above the rest of the locker room. Orton’s final bid at the title would be cut short when former ally Cody Rhodes became involved and caused the disqualification by attacking Orton in front of the referee. This led to Big Show assisting Orton and saving him from being destroyed by two men and fully cemented Show’s spot as Henry’s next condenter.

v. The Big Show (Vengeance 10/23/2011)

Just 5 days after finishing the job on Randy Orton, the man that Henry chose as the first inductee to the Hall of Pain surged back into WWE and SmackDown. The Big Show attacked Mark Henry and leveled him with a chokeslam through the commentary table. 12 days later Henry had to take on Show in a match for his World Heavyweight Title, and on this night Mark Henry’s body destroyed another construction — this time, though, it would be the ring in which he was defending his title. Reminiscent of what happened in 2003 when the Big Show was superplexed from the top rope by Brock Lesnar, the squared circle imploded and fell to the floor when Henry cut Big Show off from an attempted leap from the top rope and launched both of their bodies to the canvas below. Both men would be unable to continue, although Henry could name himself the victor. His opponent was carried off on a stretcher and the World’s Strongest Champ walked out, albeit slowly, on his own two feet.

v. The Big Show (Survivor Series 11/20/2011)

The rivalry continued with Big Show receiving another opportunity to take Mark Henry’s gold. Because the match at Vengeance was ruled a draw on grounds of ring implosion, Show had a legitimate reason for this rematch, but it made Mark Henry significantly upset. As far as Henry was concerned, he walked out of the building on his own power at Vengeance and Show had to be carried out, therefore Henry was the winner. He, therefore, successfully retained his title and Big Show’s time had passed. It turned out that the time that was getting ready to pass was Henry’s — the champion was unable to put the Big Show away at the Survivor Series and resigned himself to a low blow in order to cause the disqualification and save his title. This, obviously, did not set well with Big Show, who, once realizing that his opportunity to win the belt was gone, gained a bit of retribution by crushing Henry’s ankle in a chair just like Henry did to him months prior. This is the moment that Henry’s reign begins to fall apart.

v. Daniel Bryan (Steel Cage match, Super SmackDown 11/29/2011)

Daniel Bryan caught the eye of Mark Henry on an episode of SmackDown near the end of October at the wrong place and the wrong time. Henry claimed that Bryan was looking at him the wrong way and took offense to it. This led to a number of instances in which Henry roughed Bryan up, but not once did the much smaller man back down. Eventually The Big Show would come to his aid, but more importantly Bryan would aid himself when given a chance to become the #1 Contender to Mark Henry’s World Heavyweight Championship. Bryan defeated Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett and Randy Orton for a shot at Henry when he made Rhodes tap out to the LaBelle Lock. Bryan worked a different hold for his championship match, focusing on Henry’s injured ankle when possible and almost defeating the dominant champion when he was able to tightly apply the ankle lock. Henry would escape that move, however, and when Bryan tried one last time to escape the cage, Henry was there to catch him going out and brought him back in with a World’s Strongest Slam from the top rope. That would be more than enough to put away the very game Daniel Bryan.

v. The Big Show (Chairs match, TLC 12/18/2011)

After his close victory over Daniel Bryan inside the cage, Mark Henry would have to face off one more time against a man who he had not been able to defeat since he returned from an injury given to him by Henry himself. There needed to be a “chairs” match at the Tables, Ladders and Chairs PPV event in December, and what match would be a more appropriate setting for such a stipulation than a match featuring two men that had both used steel chairs to crush each others’ ankles? Big Show took advantage of the semi-hobbled Henry and picked up the victory and won his first World Title in 9 years. His celebration wouldn’t last long, however, as the unsportsmanlike Henry would attack from behind and lay the new champion out with a thunderous DDT onto a pile of chairs. That was not the big story of the night, however…

It’s all Big Show’s fault, really. He pushed for Bryan to take advantage of the element of surprise that the MITB holder posesses, but he pushed for Bryan to use it to unseat Mark Henry. Lo and behold the tables would be turned on Big Show when Bryan took the opportunity that opened up when Mark Henry took out the Big Show right after Show won the title.

v. The Big Show (SmackDown 1/6/2012)

Bryan’s first championship defense will be aired tonight on SyFy. The results are in, but in the interest of fairness I will not opine at this time. Let it be known that because I am not screaming bloody murder, nothing necessarily bad happened to the new World Champion.

This is definitely not the easiest one for me to call. The graphic above has images from the storyline that everybody who put their choices in the comments a couple weeks back went with in CM Punk v. WWE as well as the story that led SmackDown through the spring and summer in Orton v. Christian. Let’s see what I can come up with, starting with my response to your choice of Punk versus World Wrestling Entertainment.

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PaulOrndorff, @ScottOTD, midz, LitasRevenge and HeartBurnKid all went with the Summer of Punk II. It has been said over and over ad nauseum at this point, but an angle that could have possibly ushered in a new “golden age” of WWE (if not wrestling in general) was rushed and squandered and ultimately led to Triple H and Kevin Nash fighting each other in a ladder match. Punk’s worked shoot was fantastic television and all of his interactions with Triple H, most notably, were great to watch. I honestly don’t believe that this angle was set to light the wrestling world back on fire and bring it back to its former mainstream glory but if it had been done differently (don’t ask me how — there were surely 100 better ways to go than what actually happened) it certainly may have sparked some big immediate and longer spanning changes within the WWE landscape. It has already done so, although it was through the combined efforts of CM Punk, Zack Ryder and Daniel Bryan as babyfaces and The Zig Zag Man, Vickie Guerrero, John Laurinitis, Mark Henry and Big Show as their heel (and one face) counterparts. It was a great idea that didn’t come anywhere close to living up to its potential. There were a pair of outstanding matches in Punk v. Cena from both Money in the Bank and SummerSlam and the time from Punk’s promo up to the moment Del Rio cashed in on Punk was great.

You have to remember the unbelievably terrible “inside” promos that Nash and Punk cut against each other, though. That was cringe-worthy television, and not remotely in a good way. All in all, the Quazi-Summer of Punk featured some fantastic memorable moments but had no resolution. It climaxed and the final act began, but for some reason the director and conductor just walked out and left the performers confused and without a way to continue.

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Christian v. Orton ended up being overshadowed by the Punk movement over on RAW. Christian’s heel turn was inevitable (though I would have loved to see him as a face for a while longer) and he played the role with perfect douchbag heel specifications. The matches were fantastic both on TV and PPV and the way Christian took the title back from Orton was a perfect nod to the past with Orton’s anger managment issues (IED). I would also add all of Christian’s continued “one more match” campaigning into this as a continued angle which makes the entire story arc even more entertaining. My man The Great Capt. Smooth asked on Wednesday “Where was the actual “need” for Christian’s heel turn?” — There wasn’t a need. Christian would have made an amazing face champion and he could have done the title proud. His promo about how he wasn’t even good enough to put his hands on the title unless he earned it was fantastic and a great character trait that we haven’t seen in a long, long, long time. I think Christian could have carried the belt throughout the entire summer as the honorable champion before being the guy to lose it to Mark Henry in September. Then he could turn heel after being overlooked for a rematch in favor of Orton becoming Henry’s next challenger. I won’t bitch about it, though, because we got a bunch of great, great matches out of Orton and Christian, and in the end, at least as far as I’m concerned, it’s the wrestling that counts.

Zack Ryder: Superstars to SuperSTAR.

Some may prefer to call this the feel-good story of the year or underdog story of the year or something to that effect, but to me this is THE best thing that happened in professional wrestling in 2011. Zack Ryder is a kid from Long Island that worked his ass off to get what he felt like he deserved. In some effect it ends up lending credence to the point that Triple H and others like to make whenever confronted about the glass ceiling and guys not getting a push — it’s up to the guys to get over and make themselves into somebody that Vince wants to put on television and, more importantly, somebody that Vince is willing to hand off the ball to. It doesn’t make the statement bulletproof, but Ryder’s road to success is indeed a story that proves that if you have what it takes to make it and you do everything you can do to get noticed, you will get a chance. You still have to know somebody, though. From what I remember they were considering cutting Ryder loose at some point fairly early on in the True LI Story series but thanks to being friends with guys like Punk and Cena he was given some slack and ended up making the cut. But I digress.

Back to the point at hand, Ryder spent weeks and weeks and months and months putting together a once-a-week short form Youtube video series and people flocked to it like crazy. It was entertaining and creative and it got him noticed. It still took a while for him to start showing up on RAW and SmackDown, but when he did it was worth it. Crowds had already been chanting and cheering for Ryder even when he wasn’t on the show. He gets on TV, finally — and he’s the assistant to the General Manager of SmackDown, Thaddeus Long. He starts to take whatever chance he can to make matches and get extra TV time and weasels his way into matches of his own. As time passes he believes he has what it takes to get a title shot, but no matter what he did, including defeating the US Champion time and time again, he could not get his shot. So he turned to the place that got him here to begin with — the internet, more specifically social media. He got the most signatures ever for a Twitter petition, had other WWE Superstars on his Youtube show and worked and worked until he was able to secure a shot to get the shot at he title.

And then — curveball. Ryder gets his chance to be put in a match for the United States Championship, but he must defeat John Cena to get there. Cena had his own business to worry about. Cena was, and continues to be, one of Ryder’s most ardent supporters, and he didn’t want to fight him, but Cena had a WWE Title shot hanging in the balance. It was a simple yet borderline brilliant twist in the story. I don’t like that they had Cena and Ryder act like Laurinitis killed their puppies in front of them when he announced that they had to wrestle each other, but it ends up being just a minor detail. So Cena beats Ryder thus securing himself a title shot but preventing Ryder from getting the shot that he had worked incredibly hard to get. Ryder is devastated and Cena is remorseful. So what does John Laurinitis do? If Cena was willing to give up his shot at the WWE Title, he would give Ryder…

…

A CHANCE to win a match that would give him a shot at The Zig Zag Man’s US Title…

…

AGAINST MARK HENRY.

Granted that last bit all happened in one night, but the build up to the whole thing was strong and the eventual outcome was grand. Ryder has found himself massively over and he got a storybook finish to his year by finally getting his hands on the prize that he had been working so hard to get a piece of.

A dubious category indeed. Up for debate? What do you say about the Worst Wrestler of the Year?

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PaulOrndorff: Kevin Nash, had a great Rumble-moment, that I enjoyed. Should have quit then and there.

Marsico: He didn’t really do enough. He only had one real match if you don’t count the Rumble and the Santino squash, and it was actually, at least in my opinion, a darn good match. He can thank Triple H for that one since it was quite evident that 99% of the work done in that match was done by people not named Kevin Nash. Nash did end up being below the usual standard we’re used to for him on the mic as well, but outside of the couple aforementioned promos with Punk he was okay-ish. Nash didn’t do enough in 2011 to warrant being called the worst.

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@ScottOTD: Mason Ryan

Marsico: Where did he go, by the way? Him showing up looked like it was about to be curtains for Zack Ryder’s US Title dreams, but thankfully after mistiming 99 out of 100 moves, looking stupid and appearing to have to think very, very hard just to walk Mason Ryan disappeared into the abyss. Although he did wrestle in a handful of matches, he can also fit in the Nash category of just not having enough on his resume.

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midz: Alicia Fox(even though some guys are bad, I fear for nobody worst than whoever has to be in the ring wit her)

Marsico: She was definitely in the running in my mind, but I try to do my best to forget she exists whenever possible.

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LitasRevenge: Uh..too many to name.. Rihanna, Santino…

Marsico: Rihanna we covered above. Santino, absolutely not. I used to be against any appearance of this guy, but he has grown on me a lot and I enjoy seeing him whenever possible. He’s harmless, doesn’t take up much time and more often than not when he gets in the ring it’s to be funny for 30 seconds and then get his wig split for a minute. Hardly “Worst Wrester of the Year”qualifications.

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HeartBurnKid also chose Alicia Fox.

Sin Cara? Como Mas Sin Talento!

The guy came in with tons of hype and he blew it in almost record time. I owe it to myself to check out his work as Mistico down in Mexico, but as Sin Cara up here the guy just couldn’t get it done. If you can only work good matches with the absolute BEST that we have to offer (such as Daniel Bryan) and everything else is clunky, awkward, full of mistakes and infested with poor timing, you have failed as a top talent prospect. Triple H is now 0 for 2 on signings. To be fair, Kharma was a great signing but poor timing led to her leaving before having a single match due to pregnancy. Sin Cara just came in and stunk up the joint. And really, you can’t even blame the language barrier because he had shitty matches against the man now known as Hunico. Granted Hunico is no Daniel Bryan or even Primo for that matter, but the language barrier factor no longer exists when there is no language barrier.

His awful run isn’t worthy of biggest disappointment. Sin Cara was simply the worst wrestler of 2011. Maybe he’ll work on his ability to wrestle a different style in a larger ring and we will get a much improved Sin Cara if he does come back to TV after he heals up. Times can only tell. But the time of 2011 told me that Sin Cara was the worst wrestler.

And the time has come for probably the biggest award of the year as far as the WedFriWipplement is concerned, the best wrestler of the year. I think I made it pretty clear who my winner is, but let’s see what you have to say first.

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HeartBurnKid, LitasRevenge, @ScottOTD and PaulOrndorff: CM Punk

Marsico: At the end of 2010 into the beginning of 2011 it looked like Punk was getting ready to really break out. He was doing commentary at the time (those were the days) and attacked Cena solo and then revealed that he was the leader of the New Nexus. It looked like he was headed toward a WrestleMania match with Cena, but then out of nowhere that was dropped and he began a program with Orton instead. It lead to some good matches and was all well and fine, but it was a far cry from the spotlight that Punk seemed poised to take when he was set to feud with Cena. He had good matches with Orton at ‘Mania and Extreme Rules and then ended up directionless for a couple very short weeks and ended up taking on Mysterio at Capitol Punishment before the “Summer of Punk” and the rest of his year happened. Honestly, looking back at the year Punk did really have a lot going. For some reason it felt like he hung around with nothing to do all year but that really wasn’t the case at all. That notwithstanding, I’m still going with my original choice, who was also the choice of our friend midz…

Randy Orton had his best in-ring year ever.

Except for a few moments while I was typing up the rebuttal toward those who chose Punk, there was never doubt in my mind that Orton was the best wrestler of 2011. He started the year challenging The Miz for the WWE Title at the Royal Rumble and after the Elimination Chamber he found himself in CM Punk’s crosshairs. Orton pretty much dominated that feud; he punted the Nexus out of existence one-by-one, he beat Punk in both of their PPV matches and walked off to SmackDown looking unstoppable. He came to SmackDown in April and on just his second show back with the blue team he took the World Heavyweight Title from Christian and went on to have a multitude of great matches with him as well as a fantastic TV match with Sheamus. Orton was getting MASSIVE reactions from the crowd from the moment he moved to SmackDown. He performed better in-ring and out then ever in his career and did a great job putting Henry over twice on PPV. 2011 ended in quite a lacklustre way for Orton, as his feud with Wade Barrett kind of fell flat, at least in my eyes. Not sure why. No matter what, though, Orton’s year was, in my opinion, better in 2011 than in any other year and he officially made me a big fan again after losing me on a number of occasions throughout his career.

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A few of you questioned me on my choice for ‘Disappointment of the Year’:

Guest#0212: “How can the diva division “collapse” when it’s already been dead for years?

Still Guest#8287: “I know it’s your opinion and I respect it, but IDK how the the diva division collapsing could be #1. It wasn’t that good last year, Kharma left before she could really make an impact, and the DoD have held the title for a while. I don’t think it was a great year, but I think it was better this year then it was last year. We got some good PPV matches, Beth having a long run, and Kharma will be back soon hopefully. My biggest disappointment would be Sin Cara. So much hype coming in, and he never gets going. He botches in just about every match, gets a wellness violation, and injured. Was supposed to have a big year and was had a terrible one.”

G-Walla: “The dissapointment isn’t that the Divas’ division collapsed, because that would mean there was some sort of foundation. No, what was dissapointing is the wasted potential.”

Marsico: I agree, #0212, that the division has been dead for years and years, and honestly has only ever been alive for fits and spurts, but my disappointment comes from the idea that I thought it was going to lead to something and then completely fell apart. G-Walla more or less pinpoints what my meaning is. It’s not that the division went from greatness and became a nearly nonexistent joke but rather that the girls seemed poised to be involved in a storyline that was going to give them some direction and then it just sorta… stopped. #8287, I did indeed, as you see above, acknowledge Sin Cara’s prominent failures this year, but I opted to call him the worst wrestler of the year instead of biggest disappointment. I honestly wasn’t all that excited for him in the first place, and his first couple of appearances did nothing to make my opinion change and it pretty much went downhill from there. Plus, the lighting for his matches SUCKS!

So yeah, regarding the Divas, my disappointment came from actually believing that they were going to put together a full angle with a discernable beginning, middle and end, but instead we got a beginning and a middle before the writer fell asleep with his finger on the ‘Z’ key. Now it just keeps going in a boring staying pattern instead of having any sort of central angle around the title. I was so intrigued when Kelly continued to beat Beth, and when Beth did finally win the title, Kelly going crazy seemed set to be the most interesting thing the Divas had done since Trish and Lita retired. Then they just dropped it. Kelly was “crazy” for 2 weeks and then she was happy-go-lucky again, the craziness was never acknowledged again and she was no longer anywhere near the title except for a one-off match with no angle attached. Pinup Strong was a bust and overall the entire thing was a huge disappointment for me. I am a fan of womens wrestling and since I don’t have a ton of time to be able to check out SHIMMER like I would like to do I was legitimately excited to see them doing something that actually escalated from week-to-week. I hope that clears it up for those that were confused about why I picked it.

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Guest#1327 brings up an issue with my denial of Punk as “champion of the year”:

“Punk “went away for a couple weeks”? Never mind that those couple of weeks had more intrigue in them for most of us than the last ten YEARS have. When Punk showed up at Comicon it was like having the unpredictability of Rock/Austin again.”

I get exactly what you’re saying and I totally agree. My point with the “best champion” distinction was an overall portfolio of 2011. Punk’s first reign, which happened away from WWE TV, was indeed very interesting and exciting. In the end it just wasn’t enough. That unpredictability was fantastic but it was incredibly short-lived.

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The Great Capt. Smooth offers his opinion on a different subjet:

“If I had to choose a non-kayfabe worst moment of the year, it would be Macho Man’s death. Next, would be Edge having to quit.”

Amen to those, sir. I’d also nominate Hogan signing a contract extension with TNA and Ric Flair’s life going into a worse and worse tailspin due to poor financial decisions that he made, and continues to make, for the past 30+ years.

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Herclues Strongs is a borderline troll:

“Daniel Bryan will never be as successful as Kevin Nash.”

Depends on the criteria you set for “successful”. Bryan will likely never politic his way to the top of the creative department and book himself to win the world title from the company’s most popular star and he’ll never get a spot on a wrestling card due to his looks rather than his talent. Success is measured in money only by the greedy and those who have nothing in their lives in which to find pride.

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MachoManFanStill drops an elbow on his biggest disappointment of 2011:

“Great column, great picks. I think the biggest disappointment for me would be Roode not winnnig the tile at BFG.”

I don’t follow TNA much, but it seems like turning Bobby heel and pushing him as champion the way they’ve been doing it is working out quite well. I do agree that I was upset when I read that he lost to Angle at Bound for Glory, though. Everything pointed to him winning and having the best feelgood moment at BFG since Rhino won the title at the 2005 edition. That wouldn’t have led to a heel turn quite as good as what did indeed occur.

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Guest#1777 don’t like him no TNA:

“TNA is hardly relevant nor does it do much good, so WWE takes that spot, but along with all the good it does come the disappointment hence why it takes all the dissapointing “awards” too. If TNA fucks up no one is suprised or dissapointed, and all it does is fuck up…so it gets nothing.”

Close enough. I still do intend to pay more attention to TNA in 2012. Wish me luck with that.

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Sabotage disagrees with me on HHH/Taker from ‘Mania 27:

“I’m one of the many people who consider the Take vs HHH match at WM to be overrated, but to call it “an absolute stinkfest” is really stupid and disrespectful. It wasn’t HBK vs Taker by any stretch, but it was still a good match. It just wasn’t the amazing spectacle the WWE thinks it was. But that’s the internet for you, where everything is either the best thing ever or the worst thing ever.”

The easy rebuttal comes from G-Walla:

“I disagree. I don’t think it was the worst thing ever, not even close (see Taker vs Giant Gonzales), I just don’t think it was a good match at all. I’ll admit, it might be due to my utter disdain of Multiple Hs, but I found the match to be slow and boring. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Mel Gibson put the match together and called it “the Passion of the Undertaker” On top of all that, the ending was utterly predictable.

Man, I certainly hope they don’t do a rematch. WrestleMania was bad enough this year, let’s not drag down next years, too.”

I dig the comparison to “The Passion”. Nice. As far as the match being a “stinkfest”… I stand by that. Taker and Triple H have never had much chemistry. I really liked the match at WrestleMania x-Seven, but it was a standard Attitude Era brawl that went all over the arena and utilized weapons. Their other notable big-time match was at King of the Ring 2002 and my god that one was also quite a stinker. In comparison, the one at ‘Mania this year was even worse because the commentators spent from the opening to the closing bell lauding it as the greatest match of our time. I read somebody else say that they could have cut out a solid 10 minutes if they got rid of the majority of the dramatic (yet failing to add drama) laying around that they did. Within the first 3-4 minutes both guys were laid out looking like they had wrestled for 45 minutes in a 110 degree sweatbox.

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Guest#4360 is either dumb or a troll:

“Mark Henry was hands down the worst wrestler of 2011. He obliterated the credibility of the world title, Smackdown and everyone he wrestled. In short everything he touched turned to shit.”

Guest#9860 brings us quick clarification on the matter:

“You dumbass fucking troll.”

Some quick closing thoughts before I leave you for the rest of the week to fend for yourselves…

– I was quite perturbed by Chris Jericho’s return, but like JR pointed out on his blog and as many others on 411 stated, the idea seemed to be that he endeavored to turn the crowd against him without saying a word. He came close to doing that Monday night but he’s going to seal the heel deal on this week’s upcoming RAW, I wager. I will definitely be in front of my TV waiting to see what happens.

– Kevin Nash calling Warrior Warrior a cunt is like a cunt calling a cunt a cunt. In fact, it is a cunt calling a cunt a cunt.

– Was that language pushing it?

– ROH and CHIKARA are finally going to do some work together! I know ROH had Quack for a few matches and used a guy or two once and again, but the Briscoes are going to be giving a CHIKARA team a Proving Ground match on TV in January. But then in April ROH and CHIKARA will be running a shows in Chicago at the same time. I’ll definitely be keeping tabs on this development.

Next week: Back to the regular news and thoughts format!

Have a good weekend.

– Nicholas A. Marsico