The Wrestling 5&1 12.22.2012: Kaitlyn and The Vs Royal Rumble!

This week, TNA’s hot Latina tag team of Sarita and Rosita are both eliminated, along with NXT favorite Paige!

Now it’s back to you—the reader—to pick three more women to eliminate. That’s right, you are NOT voting for winner, you are voting for someone to get eliminated. Three to be exact. We’ll narrow the field over the next eleven weeks until we get to the final two. At that point, a winner will be crowned!

At stake? Oh nothing, just a spot in the 411Mania Wrestling 5&1 Hall of Bang!

So who will win? We’ll get there, but first we need to eliminate three more of these beautiful ladies. Here is the remaining field, and you can vote below. Vote for the three you want to send home, and vote often. You can vote once every 12 hours, and voting closes Tuesday night.

Ladies, gentlemen, and readers…

Last week in The Wrestling 5&1…

To read the rest of the comment responses, be sure to hit this week’s “Wrestling 5&1: The Supplement!” Here are your “award winners!” Yeesh…

Mr Telling It Like It Is
If anyone tries to eliminate “Paige” i’ll… well it’s the internet so i’ll write a “funny” comment and make out my opinion is better than everyone else (which of course it is)

Then you are late to the party. Someone has tried to eliminate her every week—someone has tried to eliminate every person every week.

Sergio Toro
another Dean Ambrose is the Joker comment? Dean Ambrose has been this type of character even before the Dark Knight came out. actually do some research you idiot IWC Marks.

You realize it’s okay to make a comparison even if it’s to a newer movie, right?

Soap Box
Blackbird was right and judging by the responses to him, shows what I thought from Kimberly Page being eliminated. That the majority who read this column are 20 somethings (or younger) and weren’t even alive to know that what Blackbird said was true.
Our culture has gone from a “I need to work hard to get ahead” mindset to a “I am owed everything and shouldn’t have to work for it” mindset.
Today’s youth wants everything given to them. Do kids today really need iphones, ipads etc?
That is what is wrong with society and why there are so many issues. Kids are given a trophy for just participating and not actually doing anything to earn it, because “we dont want to scare them mentally”
Really? I have to earn a paycheck, I have to earn a job. If I want to get paid more, I have to put the work in to earn that promotion. They arent just going to give it to me because. We are teaching our kids at a young age that they dont have to work to achieve anything, it will just be given to them. People are no longer held accountable. Just a sad thing

If you think it’s bad now, wait until these kids grow up and start running the world.

And you, sir, are…

randomfan
Why are you voting Sarita to be eliminated? She has sexy athletic body.

Because it’s based on personal preference?

GeeSpotter
The Bella twins are gross. I don’t understand why people aren’t voting for them. That pic of Gail Kim is very unflattering. It’s gonna get her eliminated

I hope not. Then you’ll Larry Csonka and Steve Cook right when they called the 411Mania readers a bunch of “fucking idiots.” Their words, not mine!

blaha;lkdfj
I’m really digging what they’re doing with The Shield. Ambrose really seems like he could be something special and so far I’m enjoying this faction infinitely more than anything the Nexus did after that first (incredible) appearance.

I think it’s too soon for a Nexus comparison. Look at what the members are doing today. In fact, I just might have to write about that! (Hint, I do. This week.) But it’ll be interesting to look at The Shield’s members in 2 or 3 years.

Kung Fu Panda
I see some valid points in Blackbird’s reasoning. I’m pretty sure every live event is suffering from ticket sales. I know that NFL attendance is down for many teams. People are being more selective with their money spending. Now it doesn’t help when someone is putting out a mediocre show (or team). Personally, I’d rather attend a house show than a tv event because (a) the tv shows have been mediocre and (b) you get more for your money at the house shows. 10-14 years ago? Completely the opposite. The shows were amazing. Even if the content was so-so, the atmosphere was electric. Now the shows are like watching a daytime soap. You can stop watching for a week or three and pretty much everything is the same with the exception of a minor thing here or there

The NFL is down for different reasons—they’ve done too good of a job with the TV product. You get a better experience in your own living room than you do at the stadium. WWE’s house show attendance is down over where it was in 1997.

Hey, more from Kung Fu Panda
I like Punk as champ but I think they may have screwed the pooch not letting Ryback win at HITC because there seemed to be a buzz building again. You have to seize that opportuniyt (Ziggler is another guy that shows should be focused around). TNA did it with Aries (then fucked that up). This isn’t the late 80s where you can Dusty Finish everymatch and think the fans will continue to come back, there are just too many other places to find entertainment these days.

Given Punk’s injury, you might be right. People crapped all over TNA for taking the belt away from Roode to push Aries, and look at where Aries is now. I disagree that they’ve “fucked that up.” Aries is still a main event level talent and he’s still at it with Jeff Hardy. Don’t be surprised if he leaves Lockdown as world champ again.

For both comments, friend:

Cause_I_Can
Why is Eve still in this?
Also the only enjoyable thing about that Shield promo was Reigns tough guy responses. How is Ambrose 27 guy looks mid 40’s
I like MVP and Benjamin but I feel if they came back they would just get used by WWE and probably ruin their legacy so to speak.

Eve is still in this because many people find her hot? That’s my thoughts as to why, anyway. Ambrose is 27 due to his date of birth. But according to Aaliyah (and R Kelly), “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number.”

Tony will be proud.

As for MVP and Shelton Benjamin, I don’t see what legacy you’re speaking of. In the grand history of the WWE, they don’t have one. Shelton likely topped out—great in ring talent with zero promo ability. That’s a mid-carder for life. MVP? He deserved a real shot at the main event. And if he had stuck around I think he’d be getting that shot now.

The WWE presented their TLC pay-per-view last Sunday, to a surprising reaction. I’m not going to cover all of the results here, just the main event.

The TLC main event featured the newest kids on the block, The Shield of Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns against Ryback and Team Hell No members Kane and Daniel Bryan. This was a replacement match that was supposed to be WWE Champion CM Punk defending against Ryback, and I’d say this match delivered exactly what it needed to deliver. In fact, I think this turned out better than Punk-v-Ryback would have.

Official Result: The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns) beat Ryback and WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Kane & Daniel Bryan) when Reigns pinned Bryan following a powerbomb through a table.

The WWE has already proven that they learned their lesson against what they did with The Nexus. The Shield is legit, and the reaction of the Philly fans when the three Bossman attired men fighting for honor walked through the stands showed it.

The Tables, Ladders & Chairs gimmick gave the WWE a perfect way out. It was easy to get Ryback away from the ring for the finish. It’s believable that Daniel Bryan ate the pin after that powerbomb. The faces didn’t lose a thing, but the heels gained a ton.

And the match itself? Many are calling it a late Match Of The Year Candidate.

I don’t worry about those sorts of things, but a win at WWE: TLC shows me that the WWE is solidly behind The Shield.

A sign of the apocalypse? Not quite—but it is the sign of change. Change on the horizon.

You Decide: Was giving The Shield the win at TLC the right move?

With the recent success of The Shield, thoughts of The Nexus have been brought up by fans all over. One thing I’ve heard is that we don’t want The Shield to become “another Nexus.” While I agree from a storytelling perspective, you can’t argue with the notion in terms of the talent.

Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns would be quite happy if they’re where many members of The Nexus are two to three years from now.

Taking a look at the heights ascended to by members of The Nexus first requires looking back at their amazing debut…

What an amazing moment on RAW. Many people don’t like how the Nexus was used later on in 2010, and I can’t really argue. The main point in history that was missing for me was Wade Barrett having a WWE Championship run. However, that would have taken away The Miz’s title run, which was a thing of beauty in its own right.

But now, let’s take a look at the original members of The Nexus, and see where they are now.

Wade Barrett: Wade Barrett was the leader of The Nexus (and later The Corre), and will forever be synonymous with the group. He made a great Intercontinental Champion, reminiscent of the days when Triple H lead DX and The Rock lead The Nation as Intercontinental Champions.

He’s gone on to be a main event level talent, and seems primed for a world title run in 2013. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win a Money In The Bank briefcase in ’13 and become WWE or World Heavyweight Champion.

Daniel Bryan: I have the hardest time even including Daniel Bryan in with this group, since he was fired right after the attack embedded above. But for the same reasons that I don’t include Michael McGillicutty and Husky Harris, I include Booker T’s boy D-Bryan. He was there for the original attack.

Since that initial attack, Daniel Bryan has become the WWE’s “Little Engine That Could.” I seriously thought WWE brass saw him as a future main event level star, yet he went from a brilliant series of matches with Dolph Ziggler to winning Smackdown’s Money In The Bank briefcase to walking into WrestleMania as World Heavyweight Champion.

Now, you could argue that his 18-second demise on the annual supercard is a strike against his success, but that lead to “Yes! Yes! Yes!” and a lifetime of WWE fame. Daniel Bryan is likely a WWE Hall of Famer in the making thanks to his historic loss to Sheamus.

He later gave us an amazing set of matches against CM Punk, and a feud-turned-tag team angle with Kane. Team Hell No has been one of the highlights of 2012, and Daniel Bryan is set to remain a fixture in the WWE for many years to come.

David Otunga: Otunga has been the whipping of the IWC for some time now, but he’s worked his way into a comfortable position with the WWE. He’s a great slimy heel in an era where heels want to be tough and cool. His real life persona (the fact that he’s a lawyer, where he’s done legal work pro bono for those in need, by the way) has infused upon his on-stage character.

His association with Johnny Ace definitely raised his profile as well. Otunga’s success is evidenced in the fact that a win over him does matter. If you take a step back, you’ll see that he’s merely a “jobber to the stars,” but many men made a wealthy lifestyle off of doing that. And they don’t have lawyering to go back to.

Justin Gabriel: Gabriel is one of the best in-ring performers to come out of The Nexus—especially the group that spent the most time together (without Daniel Bryan). He has some great personality as well—I’m just not so sure about his mic skills. If you look at the video above, he tells a story with his 450-splash. He actually makes a good heel.

Currently positioned as a face, he’s most recently had some great matches against Wade Barrett and Antonio Cesaro. With some tag team gold in his past, I see the potential for more gold in the future as a mid-card title holder or even a tag team title holder with Tyson Kidd.

Heath Slater: Wow, what a 2012 for Slater! After the dissolution of his tag team with Justin Gabriel, Slater struggled to gain any traction. His One Man Band gimmick wasn’t doing anything—until the WWE started to build RAW1000. Slater was given a small but important role and easily made the most of it. While he lost like crazy, he continued to get more over by the week. Now Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre—the two unlikeliest of partners for Slater—join him in the Three Man Band, a group that gets over more and more each week.

Darren Young: Young went from Black Cena to a generic face to a generic heel to The Prime Time Players with Titus O’Neil. O‘Neil appears to be getting the better reaction, but Young is great in his role in the tag team. I suspect tag team gold to find its way to the PTP, and they have the chance to stick around for quite a while in the WWE.

Michael Tarver: Poor Michael Tarver. Of the original eight members of The Nexus, only Tarver is gone from the WWE. His NXT and Nexus runs were less than stellar, but he showed some potential in his 2011 return. Sadly, it didn’t work out for him. Some would argue that he called out the wrong dude in John Cena, but others have made that mistake as well (Tyler Reks, anyone?). Tarver currently wrestles for Florida Underground Wrestling, where he’s the current FUW Bruiserweight Champion.

I must admit, that’s an awesome name for a title.

Skip Sheffield: Which brings us to the final man to evaluate, Skip Sheffield. Sheffield showed promise as a member of The Nexus, but was sidelined by injury. After missing a ton of time recovering, he returned as “Ryback,” a monster who had no problem disposing two opponents at once. Ryback was slowly catching on, when a simply backstage appearance in support of Mick Foley seemingly changed his WWE destiny for good.

One John Cena injury later and Ryback is now the hottest face in all of the WWE. Many would argue that the promotion should have put the WWE Championship on him at Hell In A Cell—and CM Punk’s currently injury challenges tend to support that theory.

Either way you look at it, Ryback is arguably the biggest star to come out of The Nexus. In the long-term that title might go to Wade Barrett or Daniel Bryan, but Ryback is positioned to become the next big face for the company.

Summary: With a full eight members, it’s amazing to think that seven of the original members of The Nexus are all still on WWE television, and nearly all of them play prominent roles on the WWE’s flagship program, Raw, each week. If the members of The Shield achieve that same level of success, then I would be first in line in NXT when the WWE comes looking for members of its next hot “outsider” stable.

You Decide: Will the members of The Shield achieve the success found by the members of The Nexus?

On top of the multitude of stipulation matches at WWE: TLC, the World Heavyweight Champion The Big Show defeated Sheamus to retain his championship. Show won the match after blasting Sheamus with a chair. I mean, it was a chairs match after all.

But this wasn’t any old chair—it’s The Big Chair!

Look, we have a million reasons to hate the giant chair. But they can all be disputed…

“It’s too big, thus not realistic.” Umm, The Big Show isn’t what we realistically see walking around every day. That makes him special. Just like his special chair.

“The simple physics of swinging a chair make it less effective.” Since when did we worry about physics when watching wrestling? Plenty of things in wrestling defy the laws of physics.

“Maybe if it had holes in it, then I’d buy into its force.” Yeah, but then it would look like the Giant Swiss Cheese Chair. And we can’t have that.

“A giant chair? That’s just stupid!” Nope, it’s awesome.

Why? Because it’s wrestling. It’s meant to be over-the-top and fun. That’s what the The Big Chair is. Fun.

On Thursday, PWInsider announced that The Rock will (FINE-LEE!) come back to RAW a little bit early this year, as he promotes his Royal Rumble match against CM Punk.

Rocky will be in the house for the January 7 Live Raw in Tampa and the January 8 Smackdown in Miami. These events are in his home state of Florida, making it easy for Rock to appear. These are on the road to The Royal Rumble, which takes place on January 27 from Phoenix.

Of note is his Raw appearance, where we have an announced main event of CM Punk vs. Ryback in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for Punk’s WWE Championship. Will Rocky get involved?

Who knows. But we do know that he’ll be doing what he does—promoting! Rocky does have some movies coming out, and these don’t look too bad…

Pain & Gain – Release Date April 26, 2013

GI Joe: Retaliation – Release Date March 29, 2013

Snitch – Release Date February 22, 2013

The Voice of Choice Nation presents The Greg DeMarco Show with Greg DeMarco and Patrick O’Dowd—streaming LIVE Worldwide each Tuesday night at 10 PM eastern, only at www.VOCNation.com. Listen live and call in at 855-VOC-RADIO.

This week:
We’re talking head injuries, face & heel turns and more as wrestling psychiatrist Dr. Dave Reiss joins the show! Learn more about the mental side of wrestling–for both the wrestlers AND you, the fans.

Plus, we name Allie Parker as DeMarcette #7 live on the air! Who will she be? Tune in and find out!

Andy Critchell joins the fun for an extended discussion on long-term feuds in the modern era of wrestling. We’ll also have some some fun talking about comedy wrestlers–can they be taken seriously? Also, what does Andy think of the early comparisons between Big E. Langston and Mark Henry?

Tony Acero and Terra Calaway provide a fun filled hour three, and Justin Freemyer brings us This Week In Wrestling History!

Listen here:

Continuing with our trend, this week’s And 1 Model of the Week is ranked #6 in the Hall of Bang, and she was the Season 3 winner of WWE NXT.

Get reading!

Randle’s Wrestling News Experience!
The Tuesday Communique with Nick Marsico!
Kelly’s Thursday Sports Entertainment News!
Fact or Fiction featuring Michael Uphoff and Wyatt Beougher!
Michael Weyer shines a spotlight on his gifts for the fans!

Tony Acero presents The Low End Theory!

Plenty to talk about in the comments!
What do the TLC results mean for you?
Are you surprised as the success of The Nexus’ members?
Seriously, how awesome is The Big Chair?
Are you excited for The Rock’s return?
And don’t forget about the Versus Royal Rumble—PICK 3 TO ELIMINATE!

Until next time…

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