The Wrestling News Experience: 08.13.12

Monday, August 13th, 2012

From 411Mania’s Canadian offices in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, this is The Wrestling News Experience, with Stephen Randle!

The Olympics Are Over, What Else Are You Going To Do?

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Experience. I’m Stephen Randle, and I’m as close to a dead man walking as you can get without starting some sort of apocalypse, and I’m also sitting down, so it’s even more impressive. Hence, we have a short monologue, and get right into the stuff. I’ll do a longer one next week. Probably.

Moving on.

Rinehart had the live coverage. I start following along halfway through the Knockouts title match. Despite that, I kept watching.

Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez defeated Kid Kash and Gunner (Chavo pinned Kash, Frog Splash)

RVD defeated Magnus and Mr Anderson in a Falls Count Anywhere BFG Series Match (RVD pinned Magnus, Van Daminator)

The Pope was originally in this match, but got taken out by Aces and Eights pre-match to set up the overarching theme for the night.

RVD leaps, at least temporarily, into second place in the BFG Standings.

Devon defeated Kazarian to retain the TNA TV Title (pinfall, spinebuster)

Madison Rayne defeated Miss Tessmacher to win the TNA Knockouts Title (pinfall, rope-assisted rollup)

Man, is there anybody Earl Hebner won’t screw?

But seriously, I like the idea that Earl called the match down the middle but an unfortunate case of being a pro wrestling referee made it look like he helped Madison win. Just as long as it doesn’t turn into “Earl was in on it all along” thing.

For those who think Zack Ryder’s getting a raw deal, I give you Robbie E, sitting at the bottom of the BFG Series with 5 points, which he got by being the lucky guy who was in the ring when Jeff Hardy got counted out. Not that I feel really sorry for the actual Jersey Shore rip-off.

Gee, who has the advantage in a tables match? I know you can’t say why, but I suspect it might be the guy whose whole gimmick used to be based around putting people through tables.

Nice job, Robbie E, who failed to move the table far enough so that Bully went through a corner of the table on a suplex. Mostly because now we have to listen to Tazz and Tenay scramble to explain why that doesn’t count. What do you mean, he wasn’t “driven through” it?

Well, if you weren’t sure that Storm is not the one behind Aces and Eights, blatantly giving him a thumbs up would be the clincher. Only in wrestling can you be absolutely sure that the most likely suspect is always innocent. Unless Russo’s booking. Which I understand he is not.

Bully Ray defeated Jeff Hardy, James Storm, and Robbie E in a BFG Series Tables Match by putting Jeff Hardy through a table

I don’t have the matrix on-hand, but by not winning that match, and since I believe Storm is out of one-on-one matches, he may actually be in danger of not making the cut-off for the BFG Finals, depending on the ladder match and what the guys below him have left.

Zema Ion defeated Kenny King to retain the TNA X Division title (pinfall, Gory Bomb)

I know Ion vs Sorenson is in the future, but I feel like King would be a better choice for X Division champion, if only because he’s a much better wrestler and a much more charismatic individual.

Hey, look, it’s time for the match that TNA may as well have called “Bet We Can Get You To Call IT A MOTYC Before It’s Even Half Over”.

Will somebody get in Tenay’s ear and threaten to disembowel him if he uses the term “rocking kick” ever again?

Note to editors: the column is late because I was watching this match instead of writing.

AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, and Christopher Daniels in a BFG Series Ladder Match

Just like Destination X, what I really liked was that the whole Styles-Daniels thing gets mentioned, but doesn’t play into the match by adding a bunch of stupid soap opera drama during what would be a great match without it.

Also, it’s refreshing to see a ladder match that doesn’t require a dozen ladders set up like Tinkertoys to have a good match.

Austin Aries defeated Bobby Roode to retain the TNA World Title (pinfall, roll-up)

I hate double-pin Dusty finishes, but at least it didn’t end up with Roode getting the victory, as is usually the case in situations like that. Plus, he should have been DQ’d at least twice during the restart, first for hitting Aries with the belt and then for shoving the ref. But I digress, because it was a good match, and if Roode gets no rematches, then that would theoretically pull Storm-Roode off the table, at least for the TNA Title, which intrigues me for the build for Bound For Glory and the outcome of the BFG Series.

Last week, despite CM Punk’s bravado and John Cena being…well, you know…it was The Big Show who ended Raw standing tall over the unconscious bodies of his opponents for SummerSlam. With a week left until SummerSlam (no, seriously, it’s this Sunday), who will end tonight’s Raw with momentum headed into the WWE Championship match? We may find out quickly, as CM Punk vs The Big Show has been signed and will kick off Raw tonight!

Plus, after his actions on Smackdown, Alberto Del Rio has been stripped of his title shot against Sheamus at SummerSlam by General Manager Booker T, leaving Sheamus without anyone to fight at the PPV. Not the first time that’s happened, but this time there must be a plan in place to find Sheamus a new #1 Contender in time for SummerSlam.

And after earning another WWE Tag Team title shot in a bit of a backwards fashion, the Prime Time Players now find themselves without the backing of All World Promotions, after AW was unceremoniously turfed from WWE this past weekend! Can the PTP survive the loss of their manager? And will Epico and Primo manage to bring their very legitimate beef with the finish of the #1 Contenders match from Smackdown to the attention of those who can do something about it?

Speaking of which, despite what a psychiatrist may say, Daniel Bryan is clearly becoming just a tad unbalanced. And with an equally…let’s say “mentally interesting”…GM in AJ Lee seemingly intent on driving Bryan further into the arms of insanity, one can imagine that there will be more obstacles for Daniel as he prepares to meet Kane at SummerSlam!

And after a tense standoff last week, Brock Lesnar promised that in addition to seeing Triple H at SummerSlam, he would see Shawn Michaels much sooner. With only seven days to go, it doesn’t take a world-class detective to deduce that Brock may be talking about tonight. Will HBK even make it to Triple H’s corner at the PPV, or will Lesnar get his hands on the Hall of Famer beforehand?

Oh, and after officially reverting to Y2J this Friday on Smackdown, Chris Jericho agreed to meet Dolph Ziggler in a match at SummerSlam, but was then left laying by a surprise attack from the Show-Off. Will Jericho have a response tonight?

Meanwhile, Damien Sandow has continued to assault The Funkasaurus at every turn. Can Brodus Clay get his hands on the self-proclaimed Intellectual Saviour of the Masses this week, or will Sandow continue to hold over the big man?

All this and more, because we’re still clocking in at three hours, tonight on Raw!

Why I Don’t Gamble

I thought about doing a straight comparison between last week’s Raw and the segment predictions I made, but I decided against it because it would be a lot of work and I didn’t have enough time after watching Hardcore Justice instead of writing the whole time. Suffice to say that I was mostly wrong, although I would like partial credit for picking stuff that happened, albeit in different segments, and full credit for having the second segment be a CM Punk match as punishment for his actions in the opening segment. Anyway, if you think I’m upset about being wrong, you would be incorrect, because the Raw I predicted would have been horribly boring and the Raw we got was…not bad. It wasn’t great, and the third hour is clearly hurting the cohesiveness of the product, but it was far more watchable than the previous week’s crappy effort. And that’s really the bare minimum of what I’m asking for. I mean, if you’re going to put on three hours of Raw every week, at least give me something I want to watch, rather than something that makes me idly wonder if I wouldn’t rather watch a rerun of American Dad on Teletoon instead.

I still suspect that three hour Raws are gone before the year ends, with a maximum life of the first Raw past WrestleMania. After all, they’ll have WWE Network by then, right?

The More You Know

Possibly slightly overlooked in the more vocal news this past week was the story of Rosa Mendes. A story broke early last week that she may have been arrested for DUI, but quickly the news was corrected to reveal that Mendes had been fleeing the abusive actions of her (presumably now ex-)fiancé Jackson Andrews, who you may or may not recall spending a week or two as Tyson Kidd’s bodyguard before disappearing because he sucked. Andrews, it was revealed, may not only have been abusing Mendes, but also may have been engaged to another woman at the same time. Certainly a strange tale gone sinister, that serves as a warning to others, and also a reminder that spousal abuse is no laughing matter. Rosa Mendes was not on television this past week, and has been given indefinite time off for personal leave, which is understandable, and the thoughts and prayers of everyone here at the Experience go out to her in what must be one of the darkest periods of her life.

Even Tony Atlas Didn’t Laugh

So, obviously, the big story this week was the release of AW, aka Abraham Washingston, which was clearly the result of his ill-advised Kobe Bryant reference on Raw a couple of shows ago. Why they waited this long I’m not entirely sure, because it’s not like two weeks is a long enough cooling-off period to make it look like they aren’t firing him for the joke, and it’s not like waiting until now let a storyline he was involved in conclude, because AW and the Prime Time Players were on Smackdown and won a tag title shot there, with a big assist from the guy who won’t be around for the actual title match.

Now, people are quick to come to AW’s defense, and he also took to Twitter to expound on why he felt like he was undeservedly canned just for making a joke in poor taste. Unfortunately for AW, he managed to screw up at a point where WWE was trying to get more viewers off a combination of Raw 1000, going to three hours, and building to SummerSlam, and you know that screwing up before or during “big shows” will more than likely get your ass fired. Secondly, there’s always Linda’s Senate campaign, and yes, it’s stupid that he should get fired so that Linda’s opponents can’t say WWE isn’t family-friendly (because God knows they don’t already have hours and hours of footage for that little argument, not to mention that they’ll just play the footage anyway, regardless of whether AW gets fired), but you can’t tell me that the Superstars don’t already know that “hey, if you do something that might hurt Linda’s campaign or WWE’s PG rating, and you’re a guy who can get fired tomorrow and not be missed, maybe you shouldn’t do that thing”. It’s not fair, but it’s not like it was a secret. And finally, why the hell would you suddenly shout out a joke about Kobe Bryant’s rape charges on a live mic in front of thousands in attendance and millions watching at home? In what world is that a smart thing to do? And yes, Big Show did something similar a few years back, but the difference is (and I realize going in that it’s a fine detail, but an important detail nonetheless) that Show’s was part of the script, and AW just blurted it out without (one would assume) clearing it beforehand. Now, if someone from Creative had scripted the joke and handed it to AW and told him to say it on the air, then he’s totally got an argument for being fired unfairly, and in fact he probably doesn’t even get released. But if you’re going to improvise on live TV, you’d better be ready to accept the consequences of what you say or do, because you know when they’re looking for someone to blame, the writers are all going to say “well, we didn’t tell him to say it”, and then you’re SOL.

Sadly for AW, things will now move on without him, and while people may ask what will become of his former charges, I’d imagine that the PTP will be fine without him. I mean, realistically, what did he bring to the table? He shouted random generic coaching terms on a house mic and occasionally threw a shoe. Who throws a shoe?

– There is talk that Brodus Clay may be undergoing a gimmick overhaul as Creative feels there’s nowhere for him to go in his current persona, which has to be some sort of sick record. At this point, Clay started as a guy whose re-debut was heavily promoted, underwent a shocking gimmick change at the eleventh hour, got massively over somehow, and then spent seven months squashing various jobbers without any true feuds, but has somehow run his course and must be changed. But hey, I’m sure “generic big angry guy” will be just as over as “goofy dancing guy”. It worked for Rikishi, right?

– JBL (whose in the news a lot lately for someone who isn’t coming back) did an interview where he says he doesn’t mind if people steal his moves, because he stole them from other people. People were claiming that someone was stealing moves from JBL? His finisher was a clothesline! It was a helluva thing, but it was a clothesline nonetheless.

– Kurt Angle was saying that he was going to appear in WWE ’13 as a playable character, but he also said he was thinking about running for political office, so I say we just put that one on the “crazy” pile.

– Gail Kim’s wedding to Food Network star Robert Irvine will be airing as a special entitled “Wedding Impossible” on August 18th. I believe I called that one a few months back, didn’t I?

1. Austin Aries See, that’s how you overcome some actual odds and don’t look like a giant tool, as The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived escapes a potentially ruinous double-pin situation, then gets inadvertently knocked unconscious, and still beats Bobby Roode and shows that his win was anything but a fluke.

2. Bully Ray In a match with the presumptive favourite in James Storm and another guy who may be the closest to his equal in table match experience in Jeff Hardy, combined with the looming threat of Aces and Eights who targeted him by name, Ray still manages to prove his superiority in that specific environment and vaults himself into a tie for the fourth and final spot above the cut line in the BFG Series.

3. AJ Styles Styles gets off the schneid and although he’s mathematically a longshot in the Series, winning a match with three of his toughest constant opponents over his TNA career ain’t not too bad, neither.

4. Daniel Bryan At a certain point, you really have to feel bad for the guy, because all we have is the word of a crazy person that he wasn’t going to marry AJ, since he seemed sincere the whole time up until she left him at the altar. Plus, she really seems to be punishing him for no real reason at this point. Ah well, I guess he can’t really complain, especially if you watch Smackdown and the entire arena chanting “Yes” at the man who is suddenly the most over act in professional wrestling.

5. Sheamus Sheamus steals a car and gets mugged by fake police as a result, but the end result is that he currently doesn’t have to defend the World Heavyweight title at SummerSlam. I’d feel sorry for Del Rio getting another title shot revoked, but I really don’t have an ounce of sympathy for the guy.

6. Chris Jericho Y2J Classic is back, and with him comes the deliberate mispronunciations, the clever insults, and a man who’s clearly having some fun out there. Plus, he did some damned fine camera work on that Tout during Ziggler’s match Monday night. I can’t even get my Torch to focus correctly half the time when I’m taking still shots, and he’s shooting steady video while standing on the commentary desk.

7. Ryback It took a while, but the Goldberg chants are finally getting replaced (or at least drowned out) by “Feed Me More”. I’m not sure how the bloodshot eye is supposed to add to his character, but it certainly is unique.

8. RVD Like Ray, RVD moves himself right into the thick of BFG Series contention, after being a sleeper for most of the early bouts, and with the leaders mostly out of matches, Van Dam could slip into the top four permanently.

9. Damien Sandow Brains over brawn is cliché, but Sandow is putting it to work and staying one step ahead of the previously dominant Brodus Clay, who had only managed to be slowed by The Big Show before now.

10. CM Punk It was forgotten by the end of the third hour, but Punk did beat Rey Mysterio clean in the center of the ring to open Raw last week, thus showing that if he’s going to have to be heel, at least he hasn’t lost his ability to win, as so many other heels seem to once they turn.

Inactive List as of 08.06.12

WWE Raw

– David Otunga, out indefinitely as of July 7th (movie)
– Evan Bourne, out indefinitely as of March 19th (foot)
– Kelly Kelly, out indefinitely as of June 5th (R&R)

WWE SmackDown

– Mark Henry, out indefinitely as of May 1st (surgery)
– Ted Dibiase, out indefinitely as of March 7th (ankle)
– The Great Khali, out until November as of July 24th (surgery)
– Wade Barrett, out 3-4 months as of Februrary 20th (dislocated elbow)

WWE NXT

– Bray Wyatt, out six months as of July 4th (torn pectoral)

TNA

– Chris Sabin, out 6-9 months as of June 14th (ACL)
– Jesse Sorenson, out at least one year as of February 12th (spine)
– Sonjay Dutt, out 6-8 weeks as of July 8th (shoulder)

Transactions

– Abraham Washington, SD!, released from his contract

– Kelly Kelly, RAW, returned to action on August 6th Raw

– Rosa Mendes, RAW, out indefinitely as of August 6th (personal)

– Sofia Cortez, NXT, released from her contract

– Winter, TNA, reportedly released from her contract

WWE

WWE Champion: CM Punk
– 267 day reign, defeated Alberto Del Rio on November 20th (Survivor Series PPV)
– Next title defense: vs John Cena and The Big Show, SummerSlam

World Heavyweight Champion: Sheamus
– 134 day reign, defeated Daniel Bryan on April 1st (WrestleMania XXVIII)

WWE Intercontinental Champion: The Miz
– 21 day reign, defeated Christian on July 23rd (Raw 1000)

WWE United States Champion: Santino Marella
– 161 day reign, defeated Jack Swagger on March 5th (Raw)

WWE Tag Team Champions: Kofi Kingston and R-Truth
– 105 day reign, defeated Epico and Primo on April 30th (Raw)

WWE Divas’ Champion: Layla
– 106 day reign, defeated Nikki Bella on April 29th (Extreme Rules PPV)

TNA

TNA Heavyweight Champion: Austin Aries
– 36 day reign, defeated Bobby Roode on July 8th (Destination X PPV)

TNA Tag Team Champions: Christopher Daniels and Kazarian
– 46 day reign, defeated Kurt Angle and AJ Styles on June 28th Impact

TNA X-Division Champion: Zema Ion
– 36 day reign, defeated Kenny King, Mason Andrews, and Sonjay Dutt in an Ultimate X Match on July 8th to claim the vacant title (Destination X PPV)

**NEW** TNA Knockouts Champion: Madison Rayne
– 1 day reign, defeated Miss Tessmacher on August 12th (Hardcore Justice PPV)

TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions: ODB and Eric Young
– 158 day reign, defeated Gail Kim and Madison Rayne on March 8th (Impact)

TNA Television Champion: Devon
– 148 day reign, defeated Robbie E on March 18th (Victory Road PPV)

De Marco has The Wrestling 5&1.

Wright has The Heel Report.

Sarnecky has The Piledriver Report.

And the newest TWNE After Dark featured me talking a great deal about Kevin Nash, because he totally wanted me to anyway. Plus, I answer the question “do people care about who is WWE Champion anymore?” Also, I yell at some trolls, because every time I do that, my listener count goes up.

Programming note for this week, as mentioned, there’s a home Jays game this Wednesday, and despite them fielding a lineup made up of the starting roster of the Las Vegas 51’s, I’m still going, so this week’s TWNE will air at its old time of Thursday night at 10 pm.

Also, don’t forget to join the TWNE After Dark a Facebook group.

411 will have live coverage of Raw tonight starting at 8 pm EDT.

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And don’t forget, you can follow all of the everyday goings on in 411 on Twitter.

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That’s our show, That Damned Cook is in tomorrow, I will be back next week. Plus, don’t forget to look for the TWNE After Dark podcast at 10 pm EDT this Thursday! Again, please note the time change. No 4PC this week due to illness and lack of content, alas, but that’ll be back next week as well.

Here it is, your Moment of Buddy

Just Because It’s Another Picture Of Buddy Sleeping
Doesn’t Mean It’s An Old Picture

Have a good one, and always be a fan.