The Wednesday Wire: 5.30.12: It Was Supposed to Be Short

Good day all and welcome to your mid-week pick-me-up and the best thing you’ll read this week at the link you clicked to get in here, The Wednesday Wire! As I noted last week, the next few weeks will see altered versions of this column. I’m not sure what exactly is going to happen, but I hope that it ends up being an interesting experiment for me to write and for you to read while I’m focusing on preparations for my move. That said, let’s move directly forward and get this show on the road!

Professional Wrestling News: Jericho Kicks the Flag; TNA Sues WWE; Lesnar Talks with UFC

I’ll be going with a different format this week. Let’s see how it goes.

Chris Jericho Kicks The Brazilian Flag
Early on in his match against CM Punk at WWE’s first ever show in Brazil on Thursday night (somewhere Pat Patterson is yelling “but you’re breaking kayfabe!”), Chris Jericho took it upon himself to kick a Brazilian flag that a fan had tossed into the ring for CM Punk. This, as you would expect, drew massive heat with the live audience but also elicited a response from the Brazilian authorities, who lined up backstage and nearly arrested Jericho after the match. The match was also stopped and Jericho had to apologize before it was allowed to continue. Jericho was then suspended indefinitely by WWE for his actions.

“Wow, waking up to find twitter blaming me for an apparent suspension of @IAmJericho. Seems to me I’d blame the horrific PC world we’ve allowed ourselves to be caught up in where you can’t “act” & have it called “acting.” BS!! I’ll stand behind @IAmJericho any day of the week & twice on Sunday…what’s the big “E” stand for in WWE anyway!!. I honestly don’t see how many of you make it w/that much anger in your life…seems exhausting & a colossal waste of time!! See, that’s all I’ve got & I’m already tired!! Time to workout & hit my day. Y’all have a wonderful day!! 🙂 Had a nice txt’ing convo w/@IAmJericho and as always, he’s handling things well. Just wanted to lend him some support!! :-)”
Shawn Michaels’ Reaction from Twitter

Sounds about right to me. I guess Brazil is very particular about their flag. Many countries are, and I think it’s beyond stupid to put so much emphasis on a piece of fucking cloth. And don’t give me the bullshit “but it’s what the flag represents!” excuse. He could have gone out there on the microphone (like Miz did) and insulted the country and everything would be fine and dandy and well in the world. But don’t show disrespect to some fabric! He could have said “The people of Brazil are a bunch of hypocrites and morons and I can’t wait to get out of this damned country” and nobody would have batted a friggin’ eye. What a world we live in.

My original thought, along with that of many, it seems, was that this whole thing was a work. Jericho’s getting ready to tour with Fozzy and a quick “indefinite” suspension angle would be a perfect out. Plus with WWE really enjoying doing everything they can to throw us off and work us in more realistic-seeming ways, it made sense. This story has evolved throughout my writing of this reaction on Friday morning. Originally I was 100% on board that this was a work. Then I became skeptical of that and began to lean toward this being completely truthful. Right now, as of noon on Friday I am on the fence. It definitely seems legit and the story has been picked up by tons of different news websites, but it’s almost impossible to tell what’s real and fake sometimes. Plus, it’s Jericho. He seems to live for making us guess. JeriTroll indeed. We’ll see what happens.

Dean Ambrose Hurt: Could An Injury Ruin His Impending Debut?
Reports are saying that a suplex from Seth Rollins during Thursday’s FCW television tapings may have been the cause of a shoulder injury to Dean Ambrose. Dean has been working dark matches at WWE’s TV tapings for the past few weeks and was set to debut soon according to most sources. It would really blow if his debut had to wait due to injury, although he’s so good on the mic that he could do a lot for himself without even having to wrestle. Give him something like Raven’s Flock and make a storyline out of the fact that he’s injured and go with it. Or just ignore that he’s injured and let him talk himself out of fighting and have his minions do it for him. I’m not going to get ahead of myself, though. I’m hoping that this ends up being nothing.

TNA Sues WWE Over Talent Stealing. Kinda.
I don’t care enough about the story to go into any details. I found 411’s headline for the story comical. “TNA Files Lawsuit Against WWE, Claims Company is Stealing Talent”. That’s just awesome. I can picture Dixie Carter in a back room somewhere yelling “Jeff! Get somebody to tell Vince to stop taking my stars! It’s not fair! It’s not fair!” Turns out the lawsuit is actually about a former TNA turned WWE office employee who was giving insider information about talent contracts and the like. Not interesting, honestly. Plus, who did WWE take from TNA that was of any worth?

Commentary Discussion: CM Punk; Johnny Ace; Jinder Mahal

From The Great Capt. Smooth
“They need to push Mahal as a normal guy. Don’t play up his background, just as a guy who wants to make it in this business.”

I have no problem with him using the stereotypical music or wearing the headwrapping. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a guy honoring his heritage. It gives him an opportunity to look different and to stand out. They have to just have him speak English only, though. Let him be a heel because he’s a dick that thinks he’s better than us, not because he’s an evil foreigner who thinks his country is better than our country.

From @ScottOTD
“I agree his gimmick is at best out of date and at worst based on xenophobia it least it sets him apart from the masses of ‘firey young guys’ like Tyson Kidd, Gabriel, Johnny Curtis, Ted Dibiase, etc, etc who aren’t going anywhere.”

Yep. Although I wouldn’t lump Kidd and Gabriel into the bland “firey young guys” category. Kidd stands out because he’s small, loud, highflying and hard-hitting. He looks different and is incredibly versatile. Gabriel is a very good high-flyer who has the look and ability to play the perfect smiling babyface without being hated for it like a young Rocky Maivia was. I know almost nothing about Johnny Curtis so I won’t comment, and Ted DiBiase needs a complete overhaul. Badly. And I don’t know what needs to change, just that change needs to happen. He may be the most stale guy ever, and even not injured he was barely on TV.

From Guest#4522
“I watched Avengers XXX. Lucky I pirated it, otherwise I’d be quite upset and spending that money.”

Don’t think you have me fooled, Guest#4522, or should I call you FAT BILLY KIDMAN! You can’t keep your identity hidden from me! I’ve seen the 6 copies of ‘One Night in Chyna’ that you have in your basement apartment and I know your main decor is based around Chyna’s second Playboy spread. It’s the bathroom wallpaper! You had a special shower curtain made with the images! The knobs on all of your cabinets and drawers are pictures of her nipples! Not a Torrie Wilson image in sight! Your dinner plates and salad bowls have nude pictures of Chyna printed on the bottom. I remember you told me that it felt like winning a special prize every time you finished your Twinkie-filled Mallomar pie!

Sorry boss, you’re right boss.

From APrince666
“The return of FBK YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!

couldn’t resist”

Chyna? Is that you?

From Andre the Midget
“What do you think would be a worse scenario? Cena vs. Big Johnny main eventing the last PPV? Or Cena vs Big Show potentialy main eventing the next one?

I say Big Show/Cena. At least Cena/Ace had someting on the line. Plus this wil be, what? Cena and Show’s 3rd maybe 4th go around in a feud already?”

My perspective on this one is skewed based on the fact that I was nervous that Cena wasn’t even going to be at the No Way Out show after the weird promo he cut at the end of Extreme Rules. I’m relieved that he’ll be there at all because my son would be devastated if he didn’t get to see “his boy John” when we go to the show in June. That aside, though, I can honestly say that I honestly do prefer seeing Show/Cena closing a show over having Ace/Cena. Big Show is arguably a better wrestler now than he ever has been in his entire career. He is smarter psychology-wise and he can actually move that huge body around the ring well. Cena is Cena and he’s going to work hard no matter what. Even though it won’t be a great match, at least it has the potential to actually be a match, which Cena/Johnny wasn’t.

From TallyHo
“Great column. The idea of Punk/Bryan submission match will probably be the one thing that makes me buy the damn PPV. And I know I’m not alone. And even though I think WWE can be brainless idiots, they know that Punk and Bryan can draw a HUGE crowd.

Safe travels with your cross country move. Moving can suck when you move locally let alone across the country and tensions can run high. Wherever you’re moving, may it be a smooth transition~!”

I don’t know that at this point Punk and Bryan can necessarily draw a HUGE crowd, but the peole are clearly very interested in what the two men do both inside and outside of the ring. I think they both could be great, great draws if they were actually treated like SUPERstars, but instead they’re treated like second-tier stars, just like everybody else who isn’t John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Undertaker or Rock. That’s the exact problem with WWE right now. The only “new” guy who is treated like a legitimate superstar is Cena. And he’s 35-years-old and has been around for 10 years. They almost made Punk into a legitimate superstar last summer, but then they had Del Rio lift the title from him at SummerSlam followed by losing to Triple H at Night of Champions. Then he was treated as the 3rd most important man in the triple threat at Hell in a Cell, was pushed into a meaningless tag match in the midcard of Vengeance and won the WWE Title back from Del Rio at Survivor Series in a match that was intentionally overshadowed by Rock and Cena teaming in the main event against the same team Punk and Triple H wrestled mid-show the month before. Punk could have become the first true superstar in WWE since John Cena, but they refused to let it happen. Don’t ask me why.

Thanks for the well wishes.

From @ScottOTD
“With Show/Cena announced and Orton/Jericho & Sheamus/ADR likely that match ALONE would probably be the only thing that would make me buy the PPV (I like Sheamus and ADR but they’ve mishandled Del Rio so much I think he needs a solid midcard run to reset everyone’s minds or something)

Besides the amazing match it would be, the more momentum Bryan has as a main event guy the less he’ll be hurt when they eventually feed him to Orton who’ll no doubt do what he normally does and make his opponent look like shit.”

I agree like crazy about Del Rio. I don’t even know what happened… they didn’t job him out or even make him look bad. I guess he just got lost in the shuffle and then got hurt. He got hurt, right? Now that Jericho’s out it looks like we’re either going to see Orton v. Miz or Orton v. Ziggler, either of which I’m fine with. As far as Orton making his opponent look like shit, whether that is the case or not, he still had some badass matches with Christian and even Mark Henry last year. I just don’t know what happened. It looked like he was geared up to become a top top top star and then he just fell to the wayside. Very odd.

From the mecca
“I will be spending fathers day weekend watching all 6 star wars movies with my dad and kids, so no way out of family time means no way out ppv won’t be getting my buy. but it sounds like a good card. I still enjoy Del Rio matches, and I look forward to Sheamus retaining against him. Bryan/Punk will be awesome again and if Show can defeat Cena clean, he should then follow that up with a decent title run.

one thing I see TNA do that I wish WWE did was make their lower titles seem important. most TNA ppvs have most of the belts on the line if not all of them. I think the opening match of all WWE ppvs, especially the B ppvs should open with a US,IC or Tag title contest. if the big shows open with something different cause they are packed full of good matches, ok, i’ll accept it, but all other ppvs should have the tag titles, Diva’s title, and either the IC or US title defended. its easy no brainer storytelling and it makes the card seem more important. when i see a ppv that only has the 2 world titles and the Diva’s title scheduled to be defended I tend to shrug. unless there is some amazing match listed they don’t interest me as much. i’m looking at specifically summerslam 2011. I was hoping for a great card since its the #2 ppv of the year. the Cena/Punk match I was looking forward to, but I’m a bit jaded and really thought Cena would be winning. we had Sheamus/Henry, Christian/Orton, Diva’s title match, and Barret/Bryan announced heading in. that was it. I was fearful Orton was going to steal the world title from Christian and that we wouldn’t be getting any more matches. we finally did get an extra match, a 6 man tag, but no meaningful matches where other titles were on the line. the only way to make your lower performers look important and build star power is to make them seem like big deals, and a quick fix is to make the lower titles seem important so the people winning them and fighting over them seem important.”

I don’t think it has to do with whether or not the belts are defended on PPV as much as it has to do with them not building them as important parts of the TV shows. A guy wins a belt and spends time gloating about it, then somebody gets an arbitrary title shot, wins, gloats, rinse and repeat. It’s either that or a guy wins a belt, carries it around and doesn’t defend it, then loses it and the next guy does the same. They could have all of the midcard belts defended on every PPV and it still wouldn’t matter if there’s no real incentive other than being able to walk out of the arena with a few pounds of metal and leather around your waist.

Just felt the need to break up all the text.

From Ryan Raze
“I couldn’t agree more about Matt Morgan (I know that was last week). He’s horrid in the ring and has a terrible move set. Bringing him into the E will be taking a step backwards as he only represents a spot that a younger, more talented person could fill.

On a side note, it took me about a year to realize where I know your name from. You were on RBR with Will while I was running Zone Radio from themvzone.com. I believe we podcasted together a few times. I post as Ryan Raze here, but I suppose I was better known as Ryan React. That’s it. Oh, we may have been at an ROH show together once when you went with Jason (SansJason)”

There’s no chance that they will use the extra hour of RAW for more wrestling. It would be nice if they pulled a Nitro and used it to showcase fast-paced action, but according to what I’ve read it’s just going to be more social media fan interaction bullshit. Asking fans to vote in polls and choose things on Twitter and Facebook isn’t the way to listen to the fans in pro wrestling. The way you listen to and interact with the fans in pro wrestling is by paying attention to the live crowds’ reactions. If Kofi Kingston gets a huge reaction, give him more time. If Kane gets a disappointing reaction, do something different. Instead they just do whatever the hell they want and try to fool us into thinking we’re helping decide what we get to see.

I agree with you on the new NXT. Can’t wait to see that when it starts.

And yeah, I recognize you as both Raze and React. I really should check out the MVZone more often. Eventually when I get some more time on my hands I want to try to get back into making videos of my own. I have an unfinished 6+ minute Briscoes v. Steen/Generico feud video on my computer somewhere with a bunch of different drafts, although I may have lost it when my Mac died. I think I met you at an ROH show at the Pennsylvania Nat’l Guard Armory in Philly… did I hand you $20 and tell you to get me a DVD?

From Fat Scooter Keith
“The very overrated Bellas actually look infinitely hotter when they show off their limited cleavage.

Large breasts = MUCH GOODER!”

Equal opportunity. That’s what I am. Nothing’s better than anything because it’s all just so darned wonderful.

Brock Lesnar: Two Sport Athlete?
UFC held a heavyweight-only main PPV card on Saturday 5/26, and in attendance that evening was none other than former UFC Heavyweight champion and recently returned WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. Normally this wouldn’t be much of a big deal, as many wrestlers have turned up at UFC shows to watch and enjoy the fights. In Brock’s case, however, this is a much bigger story. Word was that Brock was in talks to get back into practicing MMA as one of UFC’s top heavyweight fighters, and it was very quickly confirmed by UFC President Dana White. White, who has been outspoken about not wanting his guys to perform for him as well as professional wrestling organizations, expressed his willingness to allow Brock to do just that.

Sounds to me like Dana smells more money to be made from his former beast of a Heavyweight Champion. Smells like money to me, too. Especially with WWE acknowledging Brock’s UFC success, which originally it seemed like they would eschew in favor of just calling him a ‘former MMA fighter’, the deck seems to be stacked up and ready to go. I would wager a bet that if Brock does indeed get a deal together to return to active competition with UFC, his fight(s) will be promoted on WWE TV as well, which would help UFC make even more money from the PPV — Brock’s return in itself can/will do big business, and if you toss in promotion/hype from the WWE camp that will assuredly bring in more viewers that are wrestling fans that have never ordered a UFC show before.

I’m all for it. What do you all think? Do you want to see Brock back in the UFC? Do you want to see him doing both UFC and WWE or just one of them?

Chris Jericho is Back in the USA
Jericho returned stateside on Saturday and his return was accompanied by a Tweet:

“The last five days have been like a really bad video game – “Worst Business Trip Ever!” by Activision.”

The story has been picked up everywhere, from ESPN to local news organizations, TMZ and everything in between. It’s beginning to seem legit to me but I continue to find myself very skeptical about the veracity of the suspension. I think that the incident and the near-arrest was all legit, but the suspension happened in order to give Jericho a good reason to go away for a little while to tour with Fozzy. At the same time, he did just start a new feud with Randy Orton, who will become directionless if Jericho just disappears from TV. The suspension is for 30 days, which means that Jericho will miss the No Way Out PPV and will only have to sit out until mid-June. That, to me, makes the suspension seem completely legitimate. I don’t think we’ll be able to ever find out for sure, but my skepticism is lower after the suspension length was changed from ‘indefinite’ to 30 days.

Independent Roundup: CHIKARA’s Next iPPV, New Women’s Promotion, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla!

CHIKARA Presents CHIKARAsaurus Rex: How to Hatch A Dinosaur
This Saturday night, June 2, CHIKARA will be streaming their second ever iPPV offering. They will again be using GFL.TV, which worked without any issues that I have heard about back on November 13, 2011. That event, titled High Noon was met with very high praise, and all signs are pointing to this weekend’s iPPV offering being even better. Here’s the bill of fare:

– Eddie Kingston, Jigsaw & The Colony (Fire, Green & Soldier Ant) v. Gekido (17, assailANT, combatANT, deviANT & The Shard)
– Hallowicked v. Tim Donst || Lucha de Apuestas – Mask v. Hair
– F.I.S.T (Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano) v. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) || Campeonatos de Parejas
– Gran Akuma v. Icarus || Ladder Match
– Sara Del Rey & Saturyne v. The Batiri (Kobald, Kodama & Obariyon)
– Ophidian v. UltraMantis Black
– Colt Cabana & Mixed Martial Archie v. The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield & Mark Angelosetti) || Loser Leaves Town

Buy it for only $14.99 at GFL.tv and experience CHIKARA! Saturday June 2, 2012 at 7pm ET.

SHINE Wrestling: Live on iPPV
SHIMMER Women’s Athletes now has a sister promotion in a new project being spearheaded by WWNLive’s Sal Hamoui, a long-time independent wrestling saviour behind the scenes. SHINE Wrestling will be running their first show on Saturday July 20, 2012 in Ybor City, Florida and it will be live to purchase at WWNLive.com. If you don’t believe women belong in the wrestling business, check this out and prove yourself wrong.

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla: Death (To All But) Metal
One of the only “name” wrestling promotions that hasn’t tapped into the massively overflowing cup of internet PPV, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla continues to chug along and churn out fun shows. Their most recent event boasts the following action:

– B-Boy def. Famous B
– TJ Perkins def. Ryan Taylor
– PWG Champ Kevin Steen def. Brian Cage to retain
– Super Smash Bros def. Young Bucks to win vacant Tag Titles
– RockNES Monsters (Johnny Yuma & Johnny Goodtime) & Candice LeRae def. Peter Avalon, Ray Rosas & Joey Ryan
– Willie Mack def. Michael Elgin
– El Generico def. Ricochet

Brock Lesnar: Meeting With Dana White Not So Good
According to sources that will likely remain unnamed for all of eternity, the meeting that Brock Lesnar had with Dana White in Las Vegas at Saturday night’s UFC 146 show did not go well. If it is mentioned on RAW that Brock attended the UFC show, UFC officials (or Dana, or whomever) will just assume that the entire trip to Vegas was simply to continue the storyline that Brock has left WWE. So what they’re saying is that WWE is trying to swerve UFC and that Brock is actually willing to fuck with Dana, who has left the door wide open for him, in order to further along a shitty pro wrestling storyline? I don’t buy it for a second. My take is that the meeting didn’t go well (if that is indeed true) because Brock asked for a lot more money than Dana was willing to pay him for a return that would be accompanied by continuing to be employed as a wrestler. Dana already said, which was quite monumental for him, that he was willing to work out a deal in which Brock was working for both UFC and WWE, so there’s something fishy here. I wonder if the story that the ‘meeting didn’t go well’ has any veracity to it at all.

Chris Jericho Suspended: Locker Room Reaction
The latest on this story is that WWE suspended Jericho because they felt that something needed to be done based on the response from law enforcement in Brazil. The locker room is said to be shocked that a Jericho was suspended. Every day I am finding myself buying this story more and more. I guess at this point I may as well just take it as an actual true occurrence. Not everything in wrestling is made up.

Free Pro Wrestling: Ring of Honor; Dragon Gate USA

WWE RAW Supershow 5/28/12: Big Show Talks Too Much

RAW kinda sucked this week. I’ll go really simple.

The Good

– Obviously, CM Punk v. Daniel Bryan was awesome. I’m not hating Kane being a part of it either. With the right opponent Kane can still have good matches. Daniel Bryan is the right opponent for ANYBODY, and Punk and Kane can put on something good, methinks. Plus, Kane can leech off of their heat, since nobody’s given a shit about him since he returned. It’s mostly because of those terrible and long-winded “psychological” promos. Good lord, man. Just beat the shit out of people. That’s all we want. And maybe once in a while you can cockslap people with your three-footer.

– Dolph Ziggler finally seems to have had enough of the bullshit. Could 2012 be his year? Well I thought 2011 would be his year and it clearly wasn’t. He started off 2012 the exact same damn way, too. Program with the champ to start the year (Edge in 2011, Punk in 2012) that gets overshadowed by all of the peripheral crap, followed by continuing to be awesome but wallowing in pigshit booking. I hope what they did on RAW with him storming off and demanding out of the tag team leads somewhere big.

The Bad

– Memo to Big Show: Less talky, more punchy. Thanks. The crowd could not have cared any less about the 15-minutes of rambling that Big Show started off the show with. It was terrible. Sure, he made some good points… kinda. My wife said it best. The show must go on. They don’t stop the show just because some fat shithead cries. I added that last part on. Felt appropriate. I don’t really understand the premise. So the whole humiliation and firing was real, which essentially means he was broken down and forced into being bad to get a good contract. But now he’s happy to be bad because the fans and the wrestlers don’t care about him? And it wasn’t all just a big ruse? What a shitty fucking angle.

– On top of that, they closed the show with TBS killing Brodus Clay and the tag champs. What the hell was the point of having Kofi and Truth out there? I get the Brodus thing. He’s young and inexperienced but he still didn’t get beat in a match so there’s something planted there for the future. The tag champs just go out and look like scrubs and that’s the end. I would be SHOCKED if Kofi and Truth try to do anything about it next week.

Looks like this week was pretty much a regular column. Had more time than I expected. Next week will likely be different. Check it out. Until then, Sean Kelly will take care of you on Thursday, Gavin on Friday, De Marco on Saturday, Randle on Monday and Cook on Tuesday. Bye!

Next week: Negativity.

– Nicholas A. Marsico