The Tuesday Communique 06.18.13: Cutting That Filler

Smart Marks 6.15.13: Biting The Barks with Dino Zuko
The Brain Buster: Finding Creativity in WWE Creative with Phil Hiotis
The 10 Count: Finishers That Need A Comeback with Jesse Nguyen
The 8 Ball: Top 8 Extinct WWE PPVs with David McGregor
The Wrestling News Experience with Stephen Randle
The Wrestling 5&1: AJ Lee vs. Maria Kanellis! with Greg De Marco
The Piledriver Report: The History of Vince McMahon’s Wrestling Empire: Part 21 with Ronny Sarnecky
Ask 411 Wrestling: 3 Man Booths, 2 Young, 1 Retirement & More! with Mathew Sforcina

WWE Monday Night RAW from Grand Rapids, MI || TV Review
We begin the evening with Alberto Del Rio, fresh off his World Title win over Dolph Ziggler at Payback and apparent heel turn. He starts off asking everybody how their weekend was and calls himself our new Superman. He points out that his win last night may have been controversial, but so was the way he lost his title to the guy he beat, as Ziggler came down and attacked him when he was injured. He’s not upset that everybody was booing him, but he is upset that people have been cheering “pigs and cowards” instead of him. He is willing to give us all a second chance to show him the proper respect, but CM Punk is here to interject. He heard ADR claim that he was the “best”, and Punk certainly takes issue with that, since he is the Best in the World. He challenges ADR to a match tonight and Heyman tries to stop it from happening, but Punk shuts him up and makes the challenge. I hope this sticks and they decide to let Punk be a face, because it’s where he should be. Del Rio turns him down (duh) so Punk asks if Ricardo has tights on underneath is suit, and here comes Vickie. She overrules Del Rio and makes Punk versus Del Rio for tonight. Good opening segment that furthers 2 stories.

Backstage, CM Punk tells Paul Heyman that he is no longer a client of Heyman. He’ll always be a Paul Heyman guy, but after almost being cost the match with Jericho on the PPV, he doesn’t want Heyman there at ringside any longer.

IC Title: Curtis Axel v. Wade Barrett
Barrett doesn’t get an entrance, and before Axel can come out, Vickie interrupts and introduces her big surprise… CHRISTIAN!

Christian v. Wade Barrett
Barrett catches a cross body attempt and goes for Wasteland, but Christian slips out and dumps him over the top. He follows out with a HYOOOOGE dive from the top turnbuckle all the way to the floor. Good lord. He tosses Barrett back inside and goes up again, but this time he gets caught and booted down. That gets 2. He sets Christian up on the second rope, but gets kicked away and Christian comes off with a missile dropkick. He kills him with a tornado DDT but only gets 2. Christian sets up for the Killswitch but a kick to the gut blocks that. Barrett misses a charge and gets hung up on the top rope. Killswitch ends it for real. Good to see Barrett continue his losing ways even without the title. Match was there, crowd was enthusiastic. Christian def. Barrett, Killswitch – 3 min, NR

We get to choose No DQ, No Count Out (Axel’s achilles heel match) or 2/3 falls for tonight’s Orton v. Bryan match. Good choices. Also, the Wyatt Family is still coming, and this promo is the creepiest yet. I approve.

2-on-1 Handicap Match: Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow v. Sheamus
Hey, this feud continues! Sweet! It appears that both men get to be in the ring at the same time instead of having to tag. Cody gets the Disaster Kick and they trade turns stomping him down. Double-team vertical suplex gets 2. Sandow snapmares Sheamus into a boot by Cody and the ELBOW OF DISDAIN~! gets 2. Cody slaps Sheamus and taunts him, which pisses him off enough for the big comeback. Cody gets thrown over the top. Steamroller for Sandow and Cody takes the 10 forearm strikes in the ropes. Powerslam for Sandow, and Rhodes gets caught coming off the top with White Noise. He sets up the Brogue Kick on Cody but gets cut off by Sandow, who schoolboys him for the pin. Sandow gets out of dodge, but poor Cody ends up taking the Brogue Kick anyway. Hey, if this is leading to a renewed singles push for Sandow, I’m willing to “let it play out”. Sandow/Rhodes def. Sheamus, schoolboy – 4 min, *1/2

Brickie want to know how Triple H feels about them making Punk v. Del Rio for tonight. He asks what the main event would have been if Punk hadn’t interrupted. That’s not fair. That’s always how RAW’s main events come about. She deflects that by saying that she brought back Christian, but Triple H asks why he wasn’t back earlier, since he’s been medically cleared for a month and a half. He tells them that The Shield need to be dealt with tonight and then congratulates Vickie on booking 3MB for tonight. Maddox doesn’t believe that Triple H could possibly have been sarcastic.

Kane tells Daniel Bryan that he thinks they should get back together since they both lost at the PPV. Bryan wants to prove that he’s not the weakest link, and to do that, he only can think of himself. The only team is his own, Team DB. Kane agrees, since he’s been acting like a DB. HA! Nice! Bryan says that the only way he believes he can prove himself is by winning the WWE Title, and Kane thinks the same way. They aren’t quite broken up yet, but it’s close. Does this mean they’re both positioning themselves to be in the MITB match next month or will they be looking to get Cena one-on-one at the PPV?

No DQ: Randy Orton v. Daniel Bryan
Earlier tonight on the app, Randy Orton said that he now DOES believe that Daniel Bryan is the weak link, and he’ll prove it in this match. Them’s fightin’ words, I’d wager. They trade wristlocks to start, so Bryan takes him down with a single leg and tries the Mexican surfboard. He can’t quite get it, so he stomps the knees instead. He kicks Orton’s leg in the corner, but Randy gets a big headbutt to take over and stomps a mudhole on Bryan in the adjacent corner. Orton gets a nice slingshot suplex and gets the Thesz press, but Bryan rolls through and gets the half crab. Orton fights out so Bryan just goes back to kicking his left leg. He unloads with kicks all over the place, so Orton pushes him off and is able to dump him outside. Orton follows out and clotheslines Bryan. That gets 2 inside the ring. Orton goes for the corner mount 10-punch but stops at 7 and whips Bryan into the other corner. That turns out to be a bad idea, as Bryan backflips out and gets the running forearm. Running corner dropkick and the jumping corner dropkick get 2 and Orton gets knocked outside. Bryan tries to follow with a suicide dive, but Randy sidesteps him and he goes headfirst into the barricade. Orton grabs a Singapore cane from under the ring and goes to town on Bryan. That gets a 2 count inside and we go to break. Back live with Bryan sitting on the top rope and Orton headbutting him. Bryan blocks the superplex, however, and follows down with the missile dropkick. Both men are down in the ring, and Bryan is up first. He unloads with kicks, but misses the headkick and gets absolutely launched with an exploder. Orton goes for the draping DDT but Bryan counters and goes for the No! Lock. Orton blocks and catapults him over the top. Bryan tries to skin the cat, but Orton boots him right in the dick and knocks him outside. Cole asks if it could be a DQ, then realizes it’s a No DQ match and corrects himself. The ringside doctor wants to stop the match, but Bryan gets back in the ring. Orton throws him back outside and backdrops him on the barricade, so the doctor decides the match needs to stop, and calls it in favor of Orton. Randy plays nice and Bryan… shakes his hand and walks away. Huh. I could have sworn he’d have lashed out. Weird. Very good match, but if they want these finishes to mean something, they can’t string a bunch of them together. Orton def. Bryan, ref stoppage – 15 min, ***1/4

New Divas Champ AJ is here to gloat about her victory, calling herself the greatest Divas Champ of all time. AJ believes that she is the hero in the story, saying that she is an example to women everywhere that a strong woman knows how to get what she wants. AJ calls out any woman who thinks they are a fraction of the woman she is, and Stephanie McMahon answers the call. AJ is excited to see her and asks if she’s here to congratulate her. She asks AJ why she perpetuates the female stereotype of being essentially a complete conniving bitch, and everybody watching wonders what the hell Stephanie did for the entirety of her on-screen career. Stephanie tells AJ she better start acting like a champion. AJ bows up and pretty much tells Steph to shove it. Kaitlyn leads a bunch of the divas out to confront AJ, and instead of leaving well enough alone and allowing the spotlight to be on the current crop of girls, Stephanie has to walk up the ramp just to tell Kaitlyn to never interrupt her again. What the fuck, Stephanie? Was that really needed? Anyway, Kaitlyn charges the ring and takes down AJ, but Big E intervenes and carries AJ out before it can get very far. Very good segment here, and I really hope this leads to a resurgence of the women. I just hope Stephanie doesn’t stick around and butt in all the time.

US Title: Dean Ambrose v. Kane
This is a rematch from last night, where Ambrose won by DQ. Cole tells us that Daniel Bryan is being evaluated backstage with possible nerve damage. Okay then. Kane clotheslines Ambrose in the corner and gets 2 off a powerslam. Kane gets a pair of Irish whips and corner clotheslines, and a side slam gets 2 on the champ. Kane’s flying clothesline draws out Rollins and Reigns, and the ref throws the match out. Big spear by Reigns and they get the triple powerbomb. That was quick, but it was for the best. Kane def. Ambrose, DQ – 1 min, NR

Vickie Guerrero confronts The Shield backstage, but they’re not afraid of her. Here comes Vince, though, and says that they remind him of himself, and dusts off the phrase “ruthless aggression”. He sends them on their merry way with congratulations, and says he never liked “that Halloween mask wearing freak” Kane. Fair enough.

Zeb Colter comes out and I fast forward but I did back it up a bit when Cesaro came out. Seems that even though he’s not American, he embodies the spirit that all Americans strive to reach. I HATE that they’re saddling Cesaro with this fucker, but it’s funny to hear AC say “We The People”. Plus it gives him some direction, so I’m willing, for the secon time tonight, to “let it play out”.

Antonio Cesaro v. William Regal
Hey, it’s Regal! And they’re not even in England! Cesaro controls and gets the gutwrench suplex for 2. Regal fights back, but Cesaro powers him up to block a butterfly suplex and drops him back first. Cesaro kills him with a simple chinlock, even doing an inverted big swing while holding the neck. Neutralizer ends it. After the match, Cesaro drapes a “don’t tread on me” flag over Regal. Cesaro def. Regal, Neutralizer – 3 min, NR

John Cena is here to address the crowd. Ryback, much like what seems to be half the roster, is “not cleared to compete” tonight. What the hell put the idea in their mind to do this? Are they trying to make it seem like they care about their wrestlers by making believe they’re hurt and then making believe to protect them by stopping matches and keeping them off TV? Cena says that the WWE Universe that they are his favourite superstars, because they are honest. I feel so special. He claims that he had “a horrible 2012”, and I wonder: if that’s what he says is a horrible year, what he would call Zack Ryder’s 2012? He thanks everybody for sticking with him through all the hard times, and says that now he feels great and is ready to take on any challenge. He says he will find out his next challenge at Money in the Bank, which seemingly means that he doesn’t expect he’s going to have to wrestle that night. Cena says that whoever wins MITB shouldn’t expect to get a cheap win and gets ready to leave, but here comes Mark Henry (and his salmon jacket)! He lays his boots down on the ramp and comes down to the ring. Crowd gives big support with “Sexual Chocolate” and “Thank You Henry” chants, but then boo when he tells Cena he’ll be the greatest WWE Champ of all time. Mark’s one regret is that he’s held pretty much all of the titles except for the WWE Title. He announces that he’s going to formally retire, and the crowd asks for “one more match”. Cena gives Henry the WWE Title belt and this is kind of surreal. After an emotional speech with crying and eliciting emotion by talking about his wife and kids, Cena comes in for a hug and HENRY LAYS HIM OUT WITH THE WORLD’S STRONGEST SLAM! Awesome! That gets a big face pop as the crowd chants “you still got it!” Henry yells “You think it’s that easy? I got a lot left in the tank!” That was a really great segment.

Renee tries to get a comment from Henry who says that he had everybody fooled. He officially challenges Cena for the WWE Title. He’s going to leave one of his boots in Cena’s ass. Good times, good times.

Chris Jericho v. Heath Slater
Jericho takes him down with a shoulderblock and gets a few chops, but runs into a big side kick. That actually gets two. Jericho gets his boot up on a charge and gets a couple more shoulderblocks then comes off the top rope with the tomahawk chop. Facebuster takes Slater down, but one of the other 3MB dudes gets a cheap shot in and Slater almost gets the pin. He misses a second rope kneedrop, though, and this time the facebuster leads to a Lionsault. Codebreaker finishes. Jinder and Drew take Codebreakers for good measure. Jericho def. Slater, Codebreaker – 2 min, NR

Paul Heyman is backstage with Curtis Axel and Matt Striker wants to know how Heyman feels about what Punk said. He avoids the question and says that Curtis Axel was born to be “better than perfect”.

Non-title: Curtis Axel v. Sin Cara
Miz is on commentary here. Cole asks why he’s there, and he says that he wants to scout the IC Champion. I’m curious… why wasn’t he out on commentary earlier in the show when Barrett was in the ring before the match with Christian? That was originally scheduled to be Axel versus Barrett. I normally wouldn’t bring it up, but Triple H opened up the contradiction by asking Vickie what her scheduled main event would be if Punk hadn’t interrupted Del Rio. If Miz was out here to scout the champ at this point, why wasn’t he there earlier? Just saying. Don’t bury somebody (whether it’s Vickie Guerrero or not) and then leave such a gaping contradictory hole right there later on in the night. It’s just annoying and tacky. As far as the match, I can’t believe they’re still using the stupid ring lights for Sin Cara. Axel wins a boring match with an interesting DDT. Axel def. Sin Cara, DDT – 3 min, NR

Vince, Stephanie and Triple H argue argue over who Vickie should listen to. In the whole schmozz, Mark Henry v. John Cena is officially announced for Money in the Bank. I’ve been praising (for the most part) the family saga because to me, it’s been fairly inobtrusive since they’ve mostly kept to themselves, but now it’s branching out and they’re getting involved with the wrestlers, and I don’t like it. Seriously, what’s the end game here? Are they building toward doing Triple H v. Vince at SummerSlam?

Non-title: Alberto Del Rio v. CM Punk
Punk rushes Del Rio at the bell, so ADR bails to take a breather. ADR slides in, takes a few leg kicks from Punk and slides right back out, so this time Punk makes chase. He tosses ADR back in but meets a big boot to the head coming back in, and a second leads to a snap suplex. That only gets a one count, though, and Punk fights back. He gets a bunch of knee lifts in the corner, so Del Rio responds by pounding Punk down in the same corner. ADR gets a jumping enzugiri in the corner to Punk’s arm and works it over in the ropes. Punk gets some forearms and tries the GTS, so Del Rio wriggles out and bails again. This time Punk follows out with a suicide dive and then slams Del Rio’s arm into the barricade. Punk puts him back in the ring but stupidly stops to jaw with Ricardo, allowing ADR to hang his arm over the top rope and kick him off the apron. That leads to a commercial break. Back live with Punk armdragging out of an armbar. He gets the boot up on a charge in the corner, but Del Rio catches him with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for 2 and another kick to Punk gets 2 again. Del Rio goes up top but gets caught coming down with a shot to the gut from Punk, who follows with a spinning back kick and a heel kick. He misses the big round kick and ADR takes him down with the one-arm DDT on his knees. What do we call that one? One-arm codebreaker? Backstabber out of the ropes gets two and Punk dodges the low superkick and gets a quick near fall off a roll up. Del Rio gets the superkick on a second try, but Punk kicks out at 2. Punk blocks the cross armbreaker and hits the running knee lift in the corner. Go To Sleep! But Del Rio falls out of the ring. That’s going to be the end, as ADR keeps walking and gets counted out. His respite doesn’t last long, however, because a crazed Dolph Ziggler blindsides him and runs him off. Punk def. Del Rio, count out – 12 min, ***

That leaves Punk alone in the ring, and IT’S BROCK LESNAR! Kick his head off, Punk! Brock gets in the ring and asks for a mic but then kills him with the F-5 instead. Damn. Should have seen that coming.

Overall RAW Thoughts
This was most certainly the third good episode of RAW in a row, but it’s just too long. I built up a bunch of DVR time and watched the whole show in about 2 hours and 10 minutes without skipping anything, but the show is just too long. I think this show would have felt shorter and more concise if there was more wrestling… this week we got Bryan v. Orton and Punk v. Del Rio, which were both very good, but everything else were quick squashes. The build moving forward is certainly there, though, and the future looks fairly bright. Still wish the show were shorter, though. But hey, three weeks in a row with no truly discernible filler (close with the Jericho/Slater match, but it’s Jericho so it gets a pass), and that’s good!

– WWE’s new concussion policy ships wrestlers to TNA while they heal.

– TNA has announced that the July 18th episode of Impact Wrestling will be their annual “Destination X” show. That event will feature Chris Sabin getting his shot at the TNA World Title. As I said last week, this show NEEDS to also feature Kurt Angle vs. Rampage Jackson. There’s no way in hell they can stretch that one out to Bound For Glory. They need to announce the match on Impact this week and have Angle and Rampage do media everywhere to promote it.

– Tamina Snuka (daughter of WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka) took a clothesline from Natalya recently and got a concussion. What’s with all the concussions suddenly?

– Steve Austin used the word “caddywampus” on Twitter.

– Paul Heyman commented on Dixie Carter mentioning that she would be open to doing a cross-promotional WWE/TNA show. He said that she would be dumb not to be open to doing that and then completely buried TNA, likening them to a 2-bit startup cola company with WWE being Coke. I’d call TNA something closer to Royal Crown Cola, but good lord, Heyman, what the heck did she ever do to you? I honestly don’t get his stance on when he was offered the book in TNA. Dixie seemed to be willing to give him a ton of creative control over the entire product, and he turned it down essentially saying that TNA “wasn’t ready” to have him in town. I like Heyman (scumbag promoter or not) but I have no idea what his true problem is with Dixie and TNA.

Heyman on turning down Dixie.

TNA Slammiversary XI Thoughts

Chris Sabin def. Kenny King/Suicide (Ultimate X, TNA X Title) Very good way to open the show. The crowd was rocking like a collective motherfucker and this was lots of fun to watch. A bit light on the cable spots, but they did some stuff with them and everything in the ring was quite well done. Probably safer that way anyway. Obviously Sabin was the right choice to win the belt. I expect that he’ll lose his shot at the World Title in July, thus coming away beltless only to have King win the X Title right back. He can chase it and win it for real at Bound For Glory. I hate that the title matches have to be triple threats. I very much like the idea of the other X Division matches having to be contested that way, with winners really having to earn their way to getting title shots, but the title matches should be one-on-one unless the storylines dictate otherwise.

Magnus, Samoa Joe & Jeff Hardy def. Bischoff, Brisco & Anderson Fine match with fine card placement. Crowd liked it, faces won, nobody got hurt and Wes Brisco still holds his arms funny.

Jay Bradley def. Sam Shaw (BFG Series Qualifier) Not good. I don’t know why they put this on PPV. Well, I do, but they still shouldn’t have. Shaw is definitely no good, but I wonder about Bradley’s abilities. He’ll certainly have more than ample shot at proving himself (and learning a lot) with all of the talented guys he’ll be wrestling over the summer. Isn’t Bradley something like a 12-year pro? Shouldn’t he know how to not have such an incredibly shitty match?

Abyss def. Devon (TNA TV Title) Abyss doesn’t seem to have any idea how to actually wrestle. The Joseph Park character is amazing and I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything he’s done both in ring and out, but it’s completely destroyed the guy’s ability as a really good in ring worker. Has he been so immersed in the Park character that he hasn’t been wrestling in Mexico and Puerto Rico like he had in the past? Granted he hasn’t really wrestled an actual match since returning, but he just looks so slow, clunky and unbalanced when he’s in there as Abyss.

James Storm/Gunner def. Guerrero/Hernandez, Roode/Aries & Kazarian/Daniels (4-Way Elimination, TNA Tag Titles) Really entertaining match. I love elimination matches for titles in which the champion(s) lose somewhere in the middle, thus guaranteeing a new champion will be crowned. Chavo and Hernandez should not have won these belts back from Roode and Aries in the first place. I’m interested in seeing how they carry on with the tag division going forward. The former champs are going to be split up and Aries/Roode also appear to be going their own separate ways. That leaves Storm and Gunner to feud with Kazarian and Daniels for a while, but those two are in the BFG Series as well. What tag teams are left, if any? And what the hell did Storm do to go from being the hottest act in the company to sharing the bill with Gunner?

Taryn Terrell def. Gail Kim (Last Knockout Standing) This was was awesome. I was expecting it to be pretty good thanks to Gail, who is possibily the best North American female wrestler of all time, but it was Taryn who really stepped up and threw everything she had into this match. She took some rough-looking bumps and worked her ass off. Definitely give this one a look if you haven’t seen it yet. I felt almost like I was watching the original TNA Knockouts stuff. Ya know, the division that was pulling in the highest viewership for Impact every single week while also producing the most entertining TV?

Kurt Angle def. AJ Styles Not shockingly, this match was damn good. AJ worked a low key but still somewhat high-flying style, and I liked it a lot. Not sure I like the outcome, though; probably should have ended with some kind of no contest, which in this context would have been no more disruptive than a crappy cradle/stackup pin. The idea was probably that AJ isn’t focused and thus got “caught” by Angle, but nobody on commentary seemed to want to mention it, so it goes unnoticed and quickly forgotten.

Bully Ray def. Sting (TNA World Title) I truly did think this would be a good match, but they went out and far exceeded my expectations. Both guys looked absolutely awesome here and this was a damn fine way to close the show. I hated that they had Sting kick out of two damn piledrivers, including the one on the exposed wood of the ring (awesome idea, by the way) and then used Aces and Eights to put him away. I get that Bully is a heel and all, but if he can beat Jeff Hardy more or less by himself in a damned ladder match, he should be able to beat Sting with significantly less help than he had. Honestly it’s not a humongous deal, though, because Bully is still mega-over and it’s going to be a big deal when somebody can overcome all of the Aces interference and take the belt, so my whining is retroactively unjustified. I was annoyed while watching, though. Still a really good match with two characters I care about, which is what matters most to me.

Overall Slammiversary Thoughts: Absolutely an above average show. The matches all delivered either up to where I expected or better, the outcomes were all good for storyline continuation and I was thoroughly entertained for the entire 2 hours and 50 minute running time. That’s 3-for-3 on PPV for TNA this year, and their TV is usually really good as well. Now if they’d only get rid of Hogan and learn how to better promote themselves in the US and get a good following (and be consistent!) they would be gangbusters.

International Wrestling Cartel

Sterling James Keenan (Corey Graves) v. BJ Whitmer || IWC Super Indy Tournament 2003 – May 10, 2003
From Alex Torres: “This match was just there, a fine but forgettable affair. Too short to get anything meaningful going. It was a tournament, so I understand saving more for later.”

For more, please visit FreeProWrestling.com

Eddie Guerrero v. Jimmy Jacobs. No reason.

I’ve only seen bits and pieces of Payback thus far, and I’ve liked what I’ve seen. I’ll give it a review next week.

– Nicholas A. Marsico