wrestling / Columns
The Pay Window 7.21.13: You’re Welcome?
It’s been a busy seven days. Money in the Bank briefcases have been claimed, World Titles have switched hands, and the main event picture for Summerslam is beginning to come into focus! Let’s get right into it! This is The Pay Window!
The Build to Chris Sabin’s World Title win (Destination X 7.18.2013)
TNA IMPACT Wrestling 2013.07.18 Part 1
Hogan pep talk about 39:05 in
TNA IMPACT Wrestling.2013.07.18 Part 2
Aries pep talk about 8:35 in
Sorry about having to link to Impact Wrestling in it’s entirety, but those were the only videos I could find with the backstage segments I wanted to talk about.
Anyway… Chris Sabin won the TNA World Heavyweight Title on the Destination X Impact special Thursday night as I’m sure everyone knows by now. And even after those hype promos and backstage pep talks throughout the night did an excellent job of making it seem like it might be Chris Sabin’s destiny, one of those one in a million nights where nothing was going to be able to stop him from becoming the TNA World Champion, I still wouldn’t believe it. It just seemed like a little too much too soon to me, a little too good to be true. Even after Sabin cracked Bully Ray in the head with the hammer, and Brian Hebner counted the one-two-three, I still didn’t buy it. I was just sitting there waiting on Hebner to get up just in time to see the hammer shot, or to see it after the fact and pull the Dusty finish. But none of that happened, and when Impact Wrestling went off the air, Chris Sabin was still the World Champ.
Whoa, ok.
I didn’t think they’d actually pull the trigger, but they did. And I don’t know if most people felt the way I did, or if they’re just lukewarm to the idea of Sabin as the Champion in general, but most immediate reactions seem to be negative. Some people didn’t like the way he won it, with the hammer, they say it makes his win look like a fluke. I didn’t really have a problem with that part of it, because faces using the heel’s own weapon against them isn’t anything new. If anything, it makes Sabin look smart, giving Bully Ray a dose of his own medicine and capitalizing on his opportunity to realize his dream. Other people are already questioning the reign’s probable length, forecasting Sabin as a one-or-two week Champion at best before losing the belt back to Bully Ray. That part I totally agree with, it’s way too early in the Aces & Eights vs. Main Event Mafia story line for Bully Ray to be ultimately taken down. Sabin probably loses the belt back as the next ‘special’ Impact, Hardcore Justice.
What do YOU think? Did the climax fall short?
But, none of that really matters, at least not to me. The match itself wasn’t the most important thing that happened for Chris Sabin, it was all the things leading up to it. The whole night was centered around Chris Sabin, making him the focus of the promotion, and shining the spotlight solely on him. Now, do I think Chris Sabin’s TNA’s ace going forward? Of course not. He doesn’t need to be the ace to get money out of my pocket. He just needs to be real. And he became ‘real’ for me Thursday night.
Now, let me clarify what I mean by that. I’m not saying I thought he was imaginary or anything like that, it’s just that to me, Chris Sabin has been a non-entity up until this point. Some of that might be due to the fact that I’ve never been this huge TNA guy. I watched occasionally back in the early days of the weekly PPV’s, so I knew a little bit of him. But he never really stood out to me, he just seemed like another one of the endless parade of spotty indy guys they brought in to work X-Division matches. And in the interim between those days, and the five weeks ago when I began to write this column, I probably didn’t watch a single episode of Impact’s worth of TNA combined that whole time. So, the Motor City Machine Guns could’ve been the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I wouldn’t have known. The few times I caught them in New Japan, I wasn’t really impressed (Alex Shelley’s never done much for me, to this day).
So that’s what I mean when I say ‘real’. The video packages and the segments with Hogan and Aries gave me a reason to care about Chris Sabin the guy, not just the wrestler. And it certainly didn’t hurt that he and Bully Ray went out and followed it up with a really smart match that sold the story even more. But by the end of the night, it didn’t matter to me whether Sabin won the title or not. Just the fact that there was a part of me that wanted him to win, was actively rooting for him to succeed was more than enough. That’s Pro Wrestling 101, and it’s the little things like that that continuously draw me back, time and time again.
Punk’s confrontation with Heyman & Lesnar (RAW 7.15.2013)
Word is this segment ran long, pushing a planned Daniel Bryan/Wade Barrett match-up off RAW and onto Smackdown. That doesn’t suprise me in the least, because you know when you’ve got guys like Paul E. and Punk, things tend to get verbose. I’m also glad that nobody got into their ear and told them to wrap it up, because I thought this segment hit all the right notes. Punk not in the mood to play games, and ready to just fight. Then Heyman comes out with his usual bravado and big talk, turning Punk dropping him around, and just relishing rubbing his nose in it and tearing Punk down as hard as possibly could. Punk shot right back with his best Liam Neeson in Taken impersonation, going into very great detail about how he was going to methodically work his way back to Heyman, tearing apart anyone who would have the nerve to get in his way. I like how it got across that Punk’s tenacity was so overwhelming that it would more than make up for any physical deficiencies he may have. And Heyman actually looked afraid for his life for a moment or two, until he remembered that he still had the beast in his corner. So he unleashes Brock, and they take the fight straight to Punk. I feel like they really couldn’t have done any better than they did with the brawl portion; Brock was completely physically dominant, as he should have been, but Punk’s relentlessness just refused to let him stay down, and he just kept coming and coming, even if his shots had virtually no effect on Brock.
As much as I’m looking forward to their match at Summerslam, I’m kinda hoping that this brawl is a microcosm for the match itself. Punk gives it everything he’s got, but just gets totally annihilated in the end. If they’d use three of Brock’s dates on HHH, surely they can stretch the issue with Punk out to two, at least. The fantasy booking geek in me wants to things to go the way of Knightfall, with Brock ‘breaking’ Punk. Punk goes away for a while, and Brock goes on to win the WWE Title from say, Daniel Bryan* at TLC or the Royal Rumble. Punk makes a surprise return in the Rumble, wins it, finally overthrows Lesnar, gets his revenge on Heyman, and finally has the Wrestlemania main event that he craves so much. I know it won’t happen like that, firstly because Punk just came back, and there’s not going to take a name like his off the live events again so soon. But it’d still be a pretty cool (and definitely money) scenario.
*In my head, the rumored plans for Summerslam would happen as they’ve been stated: Bryan beats Cena, Orton cashes in on Bryan and turns heel. Bryan chases Orton until Survivor Series, wins the title back, and gets a solid two-month reign until Brock happens.
World Title Money in the Bank (Money in the Bank 7.14.13)
Not gonna post a full PPV match so soon, have to find this one on your own.
Hindsight’s always 20-20, but I really should’ve seen this one coming. Sandow and Rhodes were the only two guys of the seven going into the match with any resemblance of a storyline whatsoever, ever so subtle it may have been. The seeds of Damien’s disdain for Cody had been planted for weeks, and they pulled the trigger in a big, big way. Really though, it goes back even further than that, to the feud with Sheamus. Cody was involved on the fringes, but the majority of the matches and in-ring segments were with Sandow. At the time, it seemed like a filler feud for Sheamus, because of how much of an afterthought Team Rhodes Scholars had become. Looking back, it seems more likely that it was a trial run for Damien, to see how he would interact with a top-level guy. And I guess HHH or whomever was watching liked what they saw, and green-lit the Intellectual Savior for a run with the briefcase. I’ve got absolutely no problem with that whatsoever, because I’ve known for a long time that Damien Sandow/Idol Stevens/whatever you’d prefer to call him had skills and could flourish if given a real opportunity. But what I really enjoyed about the match (other than the match itself, which was really good, probably top 3 all-time MITB for me) was the way they went about it, Cody got as big a rub as Sandow, if not more-so. Cody was given a stage in Philadelphia to look like a star, and he didn’t squander the opportunity he was handed. He showed awesome fire, got the crowd behind him, and reminded me why everyone started clamoring about how Cody Rhodes was going to be a future World Champion in the first place.
It’d been so long since he’d done anything of note, I was beginning to wonder if the creative team had given up on him as a serious prospect, but then Money in the Bank comes along, and once again they manage to pull a (pair of) guy(s) out of total obscurity and force you to stand up and take notice. I’m not sure how the Sandow character as he’s currently put together is a long-term Champion, but that’s just me being short-sighted. A week ago I didn’t see him as a viable ‘Sir’ Money in the Bank either, but it totally works. And I have total faith in the worker to make the character fit into whatever spot he’s placed in. As for Cody, Sunday reminded me of just why the sky’s the limit for him. I see him as the next guy like HHH or Edge; someone who hung around in the mid-card forever before he finally got a chance to run with the ball, but when he did, he never let go of it. I know it’s early days, but to me this has the feel of a long-term rivalry that could span the rest of their careers, and I can totally see them opening the show at Wrestlemania XXX with the World Heavyweight Title on the line.
Stock Watch for the Week of July 14th-20th, 2013
Daniel Bryan: Came up short in the Money in the Bank All-Stars match (and yeah, I feel like an idiot for uber-guaranteeing victory last week), but he bounced back and Smackdown with a win over Wade Barrett, and he got the Summerslam Title match versus John Cena anyway.
AJ: Got duuuuuuuuuuuuuuumped.
Rob Van Dam: Looked like he hasn’t lot a step in his first week back, and picked up wins over the departing Y2J and the PTP’s Darren Young.
RVD’s hair: That’s a shame.
Randy Orton: Won Money in the Bank All-Stars to propel himself back to the forefront of the WWE Title discussion. His speculated heel turn and cash-in would continue his recent revitalization. (Not to mention wins over Fandango and World Champion ADR on this week’s TV)
Bobby Roode: So, is this officially a losing streak gimmick yet, or what?
Curtis Axel: Scored his biggest (pinfall) victory to date, successfully defending his Intercontinental Championship against Chris Jericho. It was his second defense of the week, following his win against the Miz at MITB. If he could find the presence to match his in-ring ability, he’d really have something.
R-Truth: Got pulled out of the mothballs just to get got. And what was with that hair? Ah well, see ya in six months, Truth!
The Shield: Got back to their beat-down ways with an attack on Mark Henry on RAW. I ran out of spots or I’d have Mark trending up too for the way he stood his ground. This is what I like from the Shield, going after the killers. Summerslam is gonna be awesome.
Kurt Angle/Sting: Those cheap suits… those
LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! IT’S A BIRD! IT’S A PLANE! IT’S-
And with that, we’ve made it to the end. Be back next week, and until then, you know the drill…
