The 411 Wrestling Hot or Not: 02.03.11: Praise, Judgment and Complaints

Hello and welcome to the 411 Wrestling Hot or Not! My name is Seán Reid, and at times I love wrestling. I love the in ring action, the over the top characters and the drama it brings. But I hate when they get things wrong. I hate when egos ruin the product, when guys don’t bring it in the ring and when they make me scream “Who is booking this crap?!?”

HOT

1) Sheamus: I may have a problem with him winning the Royal Rumble, but if anyone else was going to win it instead of Chris Jericho, then it made perfect sense for Sheamus to do so. Living here in Ireland, I can’t help but feel incredibly proud of what the man from Cabra has done. Sheamus now gets by far, one of the biggest pops on the roster, and has ensured that he is one of the main players in the company. His rise to fame is very similar to the one Batista enjoyed when he won the Royal Rumble. And I may be a wee bit biased here, but I believe he could go on to have a more successful career than Batista. His age is a huge advantage to him, and he is technically a better wrestler. The only thing he really needs to improve is his skills on the microphone. Now, don’t get me wrong, he is great on the stick, but he is missing something. It’s only a small complaint, and I’m sure that it’s one that will naturally improve as he gets more and more time in the spotlight.

The most exciting thing though is now it looks like that Smackdown’s main event at WrestleMania will be Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan for the World Heavyweight Championship. If you weren’t aware, these two were the dark match of last year’s WrestleMania, and everyone in attendance agreed that it was better than half the matches on the main show. So thank God both men get to showcase to the world what they can do together, but this time with even more experience and with more freedom to do what they want. Everyone back home is proud of our man and we will be cheering him on in Miami!

2) Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk: When Randy Orton and Dolph Ziggler had their match on this week’s Raw, I thought the show peaked. It was a great contest and was another notch for Ziggler to put under his belt in terms of the number of high quality matches he has had in a row. Then Daniel Bryan and CM Punk went out and stole the show with their high quality contest. Both men went back and forth and showcased something very special for the WWE fan base. It was also the first time I ever heard a Ring of Honor chant during a WWE show. I don’t agree with some people who have proclaimed this as one of the greatest contests in the history of Raw. It was very high quality, and it really showed some of the people who still doubt Daniel Bryan what he can do. This match really helped solidify Daniel Bryan as a big time player more than any of his World Title matches so far. And the icing on the cake was having Chris Jericho come out and begin his feud with CM Punk. WrestleMania is looking to be a mouth watering one!

3) Undertaker: Before last Sunday, I was positive that Undertaker would turn up as number 30 at this year’s Royal Rumble. So when he didn’t make an appearance I forgot about him returning, and believed that he wouldn’t appear on Raw until after Elimination Chamber. So when the gong hit in the middle of HHH ripping into John Laurinaitis, I marked out a little bit. It was the perfect way to bring back Undertaker, and the end result was even more unexpected. HHH and Undertaker stood toe to toe, and it looked like it would be a repeat of last year. So when Undertaker began to do his normal stuff, it was a great move to have HHH walk away, as if he didn’t want anything to do with Undertaker. This is very similar to when Shawn Michaels was trying to get Undertaker to accept his rematch for WrestleMania, but to have Undertaker turn him down. Now the roles have changed completely and it is a perfect way to continue the story of Undertaker’s last few WrestleMania matches. While last year’s match split people down the middle, I enjoyed the match and am looking forward to seeing to what they can do this year. But more importantly, I want to hear what HHH has to say next week.

4) Colts New DVD: If you haven’t checked out the excellent Wrestling Road Diaries yet, then what’s wrong with you? The documentary followed Colt Cabana, Sal Rinauro and “Daniel” Bryan Danielson as they travelled the roads between wrestling shows. It is excellent and really entertaining, and is essential viewing for any fan. Colt Cabana has announced that he will be filming the second DVD this month, which will end in another live Art of Wrestling Podcast. This time, Colt will be joined by Luke Gallows and (my personal favorite of Colt’s guests) Cliff Compton, aka Domino. If this is anywhere as near as good as the last DVD then it will blow everything (Except for the next DVD I’m going to talk about) out of the water. Check out welovecolt.com over the next coming weeks for all the details.

5) CM Punks First DVD: Just before I wrote this I got around to listening to this week’s Art of Wrestling, and CM Punk made another appearance at the start of the show. Punk revealed the exciting news that next year we are finally getting a 3 disk CM Punk DVD. The DVD will feature the usually documentary following Punk around and talking about his life story. Punk will be very hands on with this one, and wants it to be different that the normal disks that the WWE bring out. Over the past three years WWE has really been putting a lot of time and effort into their Superstar DVDs, so this should be an excellent addition to anyone’s collection. There will be more details as the DVD is made but keep your eyes on 411 for all future details.

NOT

1) Jericho Not Winning: Now, while I am over the moon for Sheamus, I still can’t help but feel that the WWE made the wrong call. Up until the last moment, Chris Jericho was the man destined to win the Royal Rumble. The WWE then decided to change this just to swerve the fans who believed that Chris would do it. My problem with this decision is how it negatively affects Chris fantastic return. On the final Raw before the Royal Rumble, Chris talked about how the world would end at the Rumble. In my eyes, this was a direct reference to CM Punk and his declaration of being the best wrestler in the world. Now, with Chris not actually winning, it just makes that build up seem like it was for nothing. The WWE is best not even mentioning it going forward because it will give too many people ammo to use against them and their booking. No doubt Jericho will find some way to move everything forward, as he is just that damn talented when it comes to character development. But it didn’t prevent me, and most people watching, from feeling disappointed when Jericho didn’t have his arm raised in victory. I hope Y2J can prove me wrong and make this blunder work with his prediction, but it doesn’t take away another disappoint that came out from last Sunday: The Royal Rumble is the last thing Jericho has to win in his career, and this was the best chance he had and will ever have. It’s not a major thing I know, and it’s not something that people will take away from him, but it would have been a great way to ice the cake on one of the most decorated careers in the history of the sport.

2) Tyson Hate: This week, Mike Tyson got announced as the fourth entrant to this year’s WWE Hall of Fame, joining Edge, The Four Horsemen and Mil Máscaras. Tyson will, obviously, be inducted into the celebrity wing of the HoF. Needless to say, I found myself taken back at the high level of outrage that Tyson’s induction has brought with it. Some fans are complaining that Tyson is going in before the likes of Macho Man and Jake Roberts go in, and others are angry that Tyson is going in despite not being a pro wrestler.

I’ll start with the second point. The key to this is to understand that Tyson is being inducted into the celebrity wing of the HoF. Tyson was incredibly important to WrestleMania 14, and the media attention he brought to the company as off the charts. It really helped WWE turn a corner and begin to get the edge over WCW in the Monday Night Wars. No-one today would bring the amount of attention to the WWE today than Tyson did, so it’s very hard to put it into today’s terms. Because of this, Tyson is one of the few celebrities that deserve a spot in the HoF. And I’m sorry, but I can’t accept the idea that the HoF means nothing. When you see how honored these guys are to be inducted into the history books, you know it does mean something to these guys, and that’s all the validity I need.

Now, to those who complain that he has gone in before some huge names, let me try explaining my view to you. Every year, the show needs one or two big names in order to make the HoF seem as big as possible. If they put everyone big in instantly, then the HoF loses that buzz that it receives every year. Also, there are a number of things that can prevent someone joining the HoF. For example, Bruno Sammartino has turned down the invitation a few times, which prevent the WWE from putting his name in. So with all that, I think Tyson more than deserves his spot and I look forward to his speech. Especially the part where I try actually understand what the hell he says.

3) What? : I’m officially launching a competition right now. Chyna this week went onto Twitter and had a huge rant about Vince McMahon and allegedly being raped on camera. At least that’s what I think she was talking about. The thing is, I don’t think anyone knows exactly what she was talking about at all. So, if anyone here can 100% interpret exactly what she said, then please either leave me a comment or send me an email with a complete translation. The winner will win something amazing, and by amazing I mean nothing at all except a shout on in next week’s column. And who doesn’t want that eh? So please, take this transcript and tell me what the hell Chyna was actually saying:

“Tell you what .When you start treating me like the World Champion Queen of Sports Japan and grappling w best in the world and compare my

Until anyone has been raped on tape, extorted, abused and had broken hip neck ribs and had their eyeballs squeezed out of their eyeballs?”

That’s me for this week, if you have any stories that you feel should make it into next week’s list then fire me an email or leave a comment below. Take it easy and I’ll see you next week!