Greetings pilgrims and welcome to this weeks edition of The Wrestling Sandwich.

Big thanks to David McGregor for his awesome fill-in last week. As my regular readers are well aware, Mrs Wrestling Sandwich is close to her due date and has been in and out of hospital with false labour…Braxton Hicks you are the bane of my existence. Luckily this week has been relatively quite and I have the ability to get this done. Next week depending on babies arrival may see Aaron Frame in the drivers chair…you have been warned.

Last week I missed the chance to talk about WrestleMania. I’m not going to devote part of The Sandwich to reviewing my thoughts because mine are pretty similar to most opinions. I will say that my predictions were WILDLY inaccurate and prove that I can’t even predict with a detailed road map the obvious results of a stage sports event.

The return of Brock Lesnar has thrown up some interesting prospects and the clash of Cena/Lesnar from this past Monday’s RAW was certainly the best thing on a weak show. But more on that later.

So let’s get stepping!

Word from TNA is that they are seriously thinking of making Bully Ray into their World Champion. I for one applaud this move. A few weeks ago when I dropped that I thought Daniel Bryan was the best heel the business has seen for the past couple of years, I also threw out that I could make a case for Bully Ray to be in that mix as well.

The smarky smarks ALWAYS decry when something breaks out of their pre-conceived moulds and actually does well. I was always a big booster of the JBL character when he hit and firmly believe that if it was played by anyone other the John Layfield/Bradshaw people would have been jumping up and down in rapture. Unfortunately people can’t see the forest for the trees and the IWC wasn’t going to give JBL an even break.

Bully Ray is in that category. People will forever see him as a Dudley Boy, loud mouthed and nothing but a tag wrestler. Never mind the fact since the Dudley’s split last year he has been consistently one of the best performed wrestlers in TNA, a genuine heat getter and great promo. Sure he’s not a fantastic worker but almost all of his matches have been super solid and has worked hard to get himself in the best shape of his career. If people just don’t want to admit that he’s managed to turn himself into a great heel then more fool them because they are missing out on some of the best heel work anywhere (besides Daniel Bryan) for a good long while.

Why? Why is Bully so good and why does he earn my praise?

The guy is a worker. He understands the psychology of being a heel better than almost anyone out there and guys like Dolph Ziggler could do themselves a tremendous favor and watch how Bully works the stick, the crowd and his matches to get maximum heat. Ziggler, while being a great worker needs at least another 2-3 years under the learning tree to truly understand what being a heel is. Wearing pink tights and having #heel on your ring gear is cheap Indy level stuff that does nothing to enhance his character.

The flip side however is that Robert Roode deserves a much longer run with the title and moving from Roode, to likely transition champ James Storm to heel Bully Ray is just a needless amount of slingshotting at a time where the title should stay with Roode for another 6-8 months minimum. TNA painted themselves in into a booking corner and want to get out of it but doing that would cause more harm to a legit prospect like Roode even if Bully Ray would make a better champion right now.

If they do switch the title to Storm I hope they keep it there for 6 months at least and them maybe move it again. If TNA can learn one thing from ROH is that keeping the title on one person for extended period, even if they aren’t clicking as champion, does have more benefits than drawbacks. As long as they book the challenger in the right way the title win will always mean something.

Onto bigger TNA new the good word came down that Spike had re-upped their TV deal and we should see IMPACT on our TV screens for another two years at least. This wasn’t really a great surprise as TNA is far and away Spikes best rating show every week and as most have rightly pointed out, they big getter of the key Male 18-34 demographic that advertiser would sell their left testicle to secure.

Of course UFC hanging their shingle at FOX helped their cause tremendously since they literally are the only game in town now as Bellator is still fighting it’s way to mainstream attention and wont be seen until next year when Spikes MMA no-compete clause is up. I suppose the big question now is after 5 years of killing the crowds and trying almost every hot-shot idea is their any legs left in the beast to raise TNA viewership to 2 million plus?

That’s a tricky one and even with the improvements as of late it going to be a long road to get the casual fan back. There is a significant burn out effect and no one single angel is going to fix the damage. The audience needs to be reconditioned and that takes time, patients and long term planning. If I was Dixie and had any clout whatsoever left she would walk into a booking meeting and remove the word “swerve” for at least a year.

I think Spike realize that there is true potential in TNA. You cannot hold 1.2 million viewers for that long with such consistently bad television without a glimmer something. The true believers will stand by the TNA ship and that means Spike can bank on X amount of advertising revenue and that can only improve over time if the right steps are taken within TNA itself.

Actually, if I was Spike I would take the plunge and make an offer and buy TNA for themselves. The company loses money yes but with tight budgeting over the past couple of years it has been kept relatively small. Spike has had such an important connection to MMA and pro-wrestling for so long and understand the audience that it’s aimed too, I’m pretty show they could swoop in with the right guy in charge and really make something of it. I’m guessing they have found it frustrating to watch a potential money maker like TNA be run by the Keystone Cops and manage to screw almost every potential big idea.

With smart booking and a renewed focus on PPV, they could easily increase revenue substantially within a year. The math is simple, you get an extra 15,000 people to buy each PPV at $15 a buy and you put $2.7 million in revenue column. It’s not rocket science. Geez, even ROH turns a profit on iPPV with minimal promotion outside of it’s core audience. With the advertising Spike has at its disposal you could really make things happen.

So I’ve been in a bit of a bubble in relation to wrestling news this past couple of weeks so as I was looking around for bits and pieces to talk about I came across the Dean Ambrose/Mick Foley WrestleMania confrontation. If you don’t know what I’m talking about that look at this video below…

I haven’t had much chance to catch Jon Moxley from his time in the Indys and at FCW but this INSTANTLY got my attention. This was FRICKIN’ great.

Firstly, I’m 100% behind this is a work. I have little doubt Foley wouldn’t have entertained this conversation for as long as he did if there wasn’t something else to it. We also know Foley is a master promo man and LOVES realism in anything he does and for him to get that serious, especially when he has someone attacking him in that way, it would be dead easy for him to slide into that type of reaction. The other key indicator that it’s a work was when Ambrose leaned in and spoke into his ear. No guy in their right mind while having a confrontation would allow that to happen.

As for Ambrose himself, consider me an instant fan. He is giving off a tremendous Brian Pillman vibe in this and he didn’t need to scream or carry on. He did everything with intensity and menace, which was a billion times more effective. At the end of the clip I clicked on some of his other promo work from FCW…

This is also tremendous and it made me want to seek out the original Regal match he referred and really wanting to see any upcoming match they may have. In 90 seconds he established so much and did what a promo should be doing…wanting someone to watch more of your product. And here’s that match now…

This was the third promo I came across…

Time it, this promo goes one minute and Ambrose showed more character and fire than any mid-card monkey on RAW from the last two years. I believed he is a dangerous man and the most brilliant part of his promo was using his smaller size to emphasize that makes him a more dangerous. How? He doesn’t say but you truly get the sense that he has no limits and will do ANYTHING to get what he wants.

HHH has gone on record that he will not rush Ambrose to the main roster unless there is a good storyline to introduce him. Seriously, he needs no “great storyline”. Give him 90 seconds a week to do that exact type of promo over the course of a couple of months and while playing up the Mania confrontation with Foley. Finally after a couple of months play your Foley card hard and have him wrestle Ambrose and just have him get destroyed.

I mean, have Dean throttle him from pillar to post for 6-7 minutes and pin Foley with one foot. Dean Ambrose becomes a star even with Mick’s diminished credibility because to the casual fan Foley is still a star and have him lose to badly to an upstart like Ambrose would be a huge upset. You get one last great use from Foley in-ring and Foley would likely be up to it, as his last match would be helping the future of the business gain traction with the fans.

Anyway, William Regal makes a better case for the potential awesomeness for Dean Ambrose than I ever could…

So much has surrounded Brock Lesnar and his return to the WWE. Even a casual look through the 411mania wrestling news archive and you can easily the reaction that he’s stirred. Here’s my take on a couple of the more noteworthy grabs…

With Brock Lesnar returning to WWE, some are watching to see if it will help out Michael McGillicutty. Lesnar was friends with McGillicutty’s father, the late Curt “Mr. Perfect” Hennig.

Lesnar has been back for two-weeks, and nothing has been evident that he is helping McGillicutty, many feel that the two have a special relationship and that the influence Lesnar has can’t hurt the future of McGillicutty.

Most people have brought up the Plane Ride From Hell and the “fight” Curt and Brock had. It was more like a drunken Curt and Brock wrestling and it got out of control and Hennig was made example of. Curt was a true mentor to Brock back in the day but seriously, I don’t think Brock would really care one way or another.

Brock is a guy that’s out for himself and while it’s an obvious connection to exploit Joe Hennig has made it clear he doesn’t want to coast on his name. However, Michael McGillicutty may have been the single worse way to avoid doing that. Change the name and develop your own character, then we’ll talk. Being Brock’s “sidekick” will not help him in the long run when Brock walks in a year.

At this time, WWE is not expected to announce a stipulation for the Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena match at Extreme Rules. [Credit: WrestlingObserver.com]

Well I should hope not. I know it’s a gimmick PPV but the awesome build these guys have done so far means the match itself is extreme enough without extra crap. That’s a cherry you can add on top later.

Actually my big fear for the whole Brock Lesnar return is that he’s going to become part of the Johnny Ace thing. He should be kept as far away from the perception of what pro-wrestling is and completely focus on his legit badass persona. The tremendous aspect to his confrontation with John Cena is that they have come off as real. This was the type of interaction that his feud with The Rock was dying to have.

In two short confrontations so much hype and interest has been created that we the fans are truly excited to see what’s next. Of course, wasting one of Brock’s PPV appearances on a B-PPV is fraught with its own kind of peril and it’s hard to see him spiking buys high enough to warrant it. On the flip side I though getting the WWE Title on him ASAP would have been a smart move and have him come out of his cave once a month to beat the next challenger had it’s own merit.

Brock can just be Brock and you don’t have to cast him as a heel or face. You can just have him as your mean, shit kicking, carnivorous, monster champion that eats up and spits out anyone you put in front of him. Go the year without him coming close to losing and the rest of the roster fighting to be the one that gets the chance to win the title back. Then get Super-Cena or maybe even a great but believable underdog like Daniel Bryan to finally unset him.

I’m pretty sure Brock will only go the year of his contract and head back to his whole in the mountain and only make sporadic appearances when it suits him from there. Having him put over someone one the way out after a year of being nigh unbeatable would be a tremendous boost to someone’s career.

From a recent Konnan interview…

“I remember that was a big thing with Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan. It was supposed to be three matches and it became one match, which was a cartoon match because of the sensitivity of who was going over…

…Shawn told this to Rey Mysterio once and I couldn’t believe it and I told Rey Mysterio, please don’t follow that advice. He said that Shawn once told him, ‘Do you like doing jobs?’ and Rey said, ‘I don’t mind.’ Shawn said, ‘I don’t. I don’t like doing jobs and you shouldn’t either.’ I was thinking to myself, that’s the worst advice you can give to a young guy. You just never know when a wrestler is going to go to Vince when nobody is listening and say I’d rather not do this. I don’t want to put these guys over.”

This created a fair bit of stir, which I’m sure most of you aren’t surprised at. I always like playing devils advocate so I’m going to break this down into two separate perspectives…

Konnan: This guy has been around wrestling for a long time and is a legit power in Mexico and played a large hand in bringing Luchadores into the US and getting them exposure. To be sure Konnan is not that powerful anywhere else but he knows what is what wherever you wrestle.

I think his main point was that if you were Dolph Ziggler or Jack Swagger you would be attempting career/WWE suicide if you want to Vince and refused to job. A guy like Shawn Michaels got away with so much crap back in the 90’s and proclivity for avoiding the J.O.B was well earned and well documented. Shawn was an obvious superstar that ran with a powerful pack of wrestlers and once Vince eventually fixed that problem, the chances of ANYONE getting away with those type of actions (outside the upper main event) was next to nil.

Rey has always been an a genial sort of guy and has almost always done what has been asked of him regardless of position on the card, popularity or talent. He knew that the best way to keep on the good side of management was to job when needed and occasionally things would cycle in his favour.

Shawn Michaels: Context is a wonderful thing. We only have Konnan (who may or may not have an axe to grind with Shawn) saying something he knew that the ICW smarky smarks would react to…Shawn said don’t job. It’s like throwing gasoline on a fire. Extremely combustible.

I actually think Shawn was looking out for the best interest of a talented small man that doesn’t get nearly the respect he deserves from WWE management. Rey is an EXTREMELY good at what he does, a legit money draw that takes a backseat to no one when it comes to stature in the business. He has always had believable matches with much bigger and powerful wrestlers and is so good at what he does he can make you think it’s totally legit that he could beat these giants.

This was also the big talent of Shawn, a guy that admits that he is in no way a legit fighter but is so good at working a crowd that it’s believable that he could beat a monster like The Undertaker. He was also smart enough back in the 90’s to realize that the more you lost in the ring the harder it was to be a credible guy in matches and that cost you money as you would never be booked in the big money matches.

Say what you will about Shawn the politician but he surely knew how to handle himself backstage and by my reckoning he was saying to Rey that he didn’t have to lay down for anyone and because of his ability to make Vince money, he’s actually in the position to protect himself, his spot and his livelihood.

Keep in mind this was a Shawn Michaels that was likely in a foul mood because he was getting set to job to Hulk Hogan against all common sense and good reason. I also think if you had the chance to ask him that if you were a nobody, would you dare refuse to job and he was look at you with his crazy, lazy eye and call you an idiot. You only get the chance to refuse to job if you have the talent to be the man in the ring.

For this weeks Legends of Wrestling review I’m going to take a look back at one of the very first discussions. This review is of the DVD release containing Jim Ross, Dusty Rhodes, Pat Patterson, Michael Hayes and Mike Graham talking about Roddy Piper and Terry Funk. These particular releases were short on discussion and long on extras and bonus matches….

Discussion opens with good ol’ J.R. as the moderator and an on-screen graphic refers to him as “Jim Ross: Voice of Raw.” I wish he still was. First man discussed is ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper. We go to a highlight reel showing Piper’s legendary promos, his dog collar match with Greg Valentine, his famous WrestleMania appearances and more. The narrator says when pro wrestling ignited in the 1980’s it was Piper who “lit the fuse.”

Patterson says that even though Piper was full of “piss and vinegar” on TV, he was a really quiet and soft-spoken person backstage. Patterson also says he always wanted to defend the honor of wrestling any time someone said something bad about it or that it was phony, yet he never saw Piper actually get INTO a bar fight even once.

We now get clips of Piper cutting a promo on Ric Flair from the early 1980’s. Throughout the video WWE does the VH1 style “pop ups” with facts and tidbits to help explain the stories the wrestlers are telling, from what Georgia Championship Wrestling was, ‘Bullet’ Bob Armstrong’s family lineage, even what the Starrcade show was. Piper himself says he and Valentine had so much pride in their product that they were willing to sacrifice their bodies and go all out for their Starrcade dog collar match.

Everybody on the panel agrees that Piper had a way of bringing the best out of his opponents, particularly given that Piper’s style was very aggressive and he “had only one gear.” Hayes disagrees and says he both “agrees and disagrees” with that assessment, noting that in his WrestleMania 8 match against Bret Hart he worked HART’S style and did a very technical match with a lot of holds and counters.

There’s also discussion of Ric Flair being perhaps the single biggest Roddy Piper fan, noting that he was watching Piper do his segment backstage at WM21 with tears rolling down his face from laughing so hard. This wraps up the roundtable discussion on Piper and we move onto Terry Funk.

The narrator notes Terry Funk won his first NWA World Championship all the way back in 1975. Ross says he hails from the famous Funk wrestling family of Amarillo, Texas including his brother Dory Funk. Mike Graham tells a story from before Terry was even in wrestling where he stole a box of hand grenades and was using them to “create fireworks” on the 4th of July when everybody at a party complained there were none.

The big debate is about just how crazy Terry Funk was. Dusty Rhodes tells a story about a cage match where they nearly burned down the ring, burned up Terry’s ass, and burned up the building in the process using a lit branding iron. Ross says that back in the 1970’s and 80’s though he wasn’t just a crazy hardcore guy, he was one of the best workers in the industry by far.

Anyway we go to a match between Terry Funk and Moondog Spot where Funk was trying to sucker Spot into leaving the ring, just so he could pearl harbor him on the ramp. When Funk’s plan backfired he attacked the officials, screamed at Vince McMahon, was beside himself irate saying this had been a miscarriage of justice. Ross notes that Funk was a bit of a rogue, but he asks Dusty whether or not he was a better NWA champion than Dory Funk Jr. The answer is that Terry drew better, because he was more charismatic. Promoters were worried about it because Dory was reliable and Terry was a wildcard, but the panel agrees that when the burden was placed on Terry’s shoulders he got the job done.

Ross wants to know if Funk still wrestling today tarnishes his legacy. Rhodes notes that Funk can draw 700-800 even today (which Hayes notes would be in a building only meant to hold 300). For everybody on the panel it all comes down to passion. Hayes says it’s all about a brotherhood that none of the kids today feel like they’re a part of, and the panel all note that none of the kids will take the time to sit at the learning tree and get the knowledge that guys like Funk and Ric Flair have.

I’m no match reviewer but here’s an overview on the bonus matches and other sources you can locate the matches…

Roddy Piper vs. Paul Orndorff – This match was exactly as you expected, it was just a street fight with ropes around it as you can count on one hand the number of actual wrestling moves they did. They went brawling onto the floor using weapons & tables all within’ the first minute. Just a very intense brawl…don’t know how else to describe it.
“Boston Garden” Aug. ’85

Roddy Piper vs. Bob Orton – Piper going one on one against his one time best friend & former bodyguard. This is another match that was pretty short & was good for what it was.
“Saturday Night’s Main Event” Nov. ’86
(“Born To Controversy: The Roddy Piper Story”)

Hair Match: Roddy Piper vs. Adrian Adonis – This was Roddy’s “retirement” match that was very entertaining (with Jimmy Hart only adding to the match) and featured so many memorable moments such as Roddy’s memorable walk to the ring, Adrian losing his hair, and the birth of Brutus “THE BARBER” Beefcake.
WrestleMania III
(“Born To Controversy: The Roddy Piper Story”)

Roddy Piper vs. Haku – It was during this time that Piper was going through “Heenan Family” members in order to get to Rick Rude. As usual with Piper, this started off with a bang as he took the fight right to Haku in a match that was good for what it was in the short time.
“Saturday Night’s Main Event” Oct. ’89

Steel Cage Match vs. Rick Rude – This was one of those cage matches where you can win by either pinfall/submission or leaving the cage. This wasn’t a bloody massacre but was definitely a good match that had the cage used as a weapon various time & also had some moves be more impactful like Rick Rude doing a flying forearm drop off the top at one point & also had some comedic moments like Piper “making an ass” out of Rick Rude.
“MSG” Dec. ’89
(“Born To Controversy: The Roddy Piper Story”)

Roddy Piper vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Mr. Perfect – For those who saw Mr. Perfect’s DVD, you’ll remember a match that happened between Perfect & Tornado with Piper as the referee with Piper getting attacked by Perfect afterwards. This was a result of that match and by this time, Perfect had regained the Intercontinental Championship back. Piper was his usual brawling self to the point where when Perfect tried to walk away, Piper ended up ripping his singlet but Perfect stuck to wrestling Piper & brought out a real good match with Piper than you didn’t normally get from him during this time.
“MSG” Dec. ’90

Terry Funk vs. Junkyard Dog – Terry’s #1 rival in WWE was Junkyard Dog and this was one of their matches during their feud as Funk always knew how to remain a hated heel yet still get people to be entertained by his antics as showcased here as Funk was so out of it at one point that he almost beat up Jimmy Hart. An good entertaining match overall.
“Saturday Night’s Main Event” Nov. ’85

“I Quit” Match: Terry Funk vs. Ric Flair – Ric Flair has his more “unique” series of matches in his career against Terry Funk & this match is no exception as Flair wrestled a more aggressive offensive style here while Funk was his usual self in being a hardcore brawl while able to do little things to make some comedic moments.
“NWA Clash Of The Champions” Nov. ’89
(“Ultimate Ric Flair Collection”)

Terry Funk vs. Ricky Steamboat – This was in-between Flair’s feuds with both men as Steamboat just lost the NWA Championship to Flair with Funk attacking Flair right afterwards. Steamboat brought the fight right to Funk from the opening & adapted to Funk’s style as he was more aggressive than usual throughout the match including fighting on the floor various times. A real competitive match
“NWA Clash Of The Champions” June ’89

Terry Funk vs. Tully Blanchard – For those who don’t remember the original concept of Slamboree, it was nicknamed “A Legends Reunion” where they had matches featuring classic names from the past against each other and this was the battle of two Texas legends. It should also be noted for those hardcore ECW fans that Terry Funk acknowledged “Hat Guy” in the front row & Gordon Solie returned to commentary for this match. This was completely out of control from the start as they spend most of the opening moments brawling on the outside getting their hands on anything they can from a fans crutch to a piece of the ringside area. They finally settled the fight back in the ring but you still saw Funk be as “middle aged & crazy” as ever with Tully bleeding & Funk bringing in a chair & his branding iron. This was just absolutely insane from start to finish.
WCW Slamboree ’94

Other extras include an amateur wrestling exhibition between Piper & Ric Flair, a Piper’s Pit where Roddy interviews himself, and the prematch interviews between Flair & Funk before their “I Quit” match.

Wrap-Up: This is an OK DVD release but more for your hard core fans. The other RT’s I reviewed I went into WAY more detail but most of the discussion here is light and doesn’t really delve into the subjects themselves all that much. The real highlight is the DVD matches and bonuses. Some of this stuff has only been made available on this disc and is pretty darn awesome. However, as an aside, Dusty is flat out awesome on these things and it is no way a mystery as to why he was such an awesome promo man in his time.

Other Tasty Treats

Check out the recent CHIKARA Podcast-A-Go-Go…

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