wrestling / Columns
The Wrestling News Experience: 11.18.13
Monday, November 18th, 2013
From 411Mania’s Canadian offices in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, this is The Wrestling News Experience, with Stephen Randle!
Now Legally Able To Be Considered Vintage!
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Experience. I am Stephen Randle, freshly ensconced in a new location, and I want to thank Steve Cook for filling in last week without even being asked. Plus, he actually said nice things about me! It must be some sort of special event or something.
Well, I mean, I guess the end of my tenth year writing for 411 could count. That’s right, it’s been ten years since the first Experience, and since then, I’ve grown older, possibly wiser, and definitely crankier. I’ve gotten married, bought a house, and have a kid of my own on the way. I’ve written hundreds of columns, expanded my repertoire to the Games Zone, and started two weekly podcasts. I even met Santino Marella. And now, ten years in, I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing for as long as I can do it, which will probably be until about five seconds after Larry fires me for missing a week of columns again.
Moving on.
This week, it’s Raw Country, live from Nashville, Tennessee! We don’t have any clue what that means, but I’m sure it’ll be fairly dumb and involve at least one skit involving Santino Marella and/or Hornswoggle!
Meanwhile, The Authority is back from their vacation, because they absolutely couldn’t have gone any of the many days when they don’t have a live wrestling program on the air, but they’ll be happy to know that in their absence, the trio of Kane, Vicki Guerrero, and Brad Maddox basically made a hash of the whole thing. Wait, no, not happy. Furious.
Plus, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan found themselves on the wrong side of six men at the end of Raw, but were saved from almost certain annihilation at the hands of The Shield and The Wyatt Family by the combined efforts of the Rhodes Brothers and the Usos. I’ve heard worse excuses for a really, really big tag match tonight, but at the very least, Punk and Bryan will face Harper and Rowan at Survivor Series.
And John Cena continues to be better than anyone, anywhere, which doesn’t bode well for Alberto Del Rio’s chances on Sunday. But at least they’ve got a match booked, because right now, there’s only three set for Survivor Series, so hopefully something gets set up, tonight on Raw!
– John Cena promoted a 10-week weight loss program on his Twitter account. If it’s anything like the ten weeks between SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell where we lost his 250 pounds from TV, then I’m sold.
– Wade Barrett is finally back in the United States! Apparently the sticking point was that he was insisting that he never be allowed to hold the Intercontinental title ever again if he came back, because he wanted to win a match ever again.
– Hulk Hogan tweeted that he won’t be going back to TNA, which of course means that he will be. Unless this is a double bluff situation, in which case…you know what, it doesn’t matter, no matter where he ends up, we lose.
– There is talk that 3MB may be undergoing a gimmick change, possibly related to the Union Jacks gimmick they used last week, or some sort of rotating personas. They will, of course, continue to be unable to beat Los Matadores.
– Word is that Ryback may feud with Brock Lesnar when Lesnar returns, building to a WrestleMania XXX match. You know, I can’t help but feel like I saw something similar to this, say, ten years ago… how did that end again?
– Mickie James said she would love to return to WWE, but since she’s a relatively competent female wrestler, it’d probably be better if she just returned to NXT instead, so she might actually get to use her talents.
– WWE reportedly sent WWE Championship belts to the Major League Baseball Cy Young and MVP award winners. They have all officially held those belts longer than Daniel Bryan.
– In non-wrestling ventures, WWE will be helping Fox Sports 1 produce a Special Olympics feature. Too easy.
– The Miz is running a contest on Twitter where he will be giving away copies of his upcoming ABC Family movie, Christmas Bounty. If you win, you don’t get one.
– And WrestleMania XXX tickets went on sale last week and quickly sold out. See, this is why they don’t learn anything, guys.
Over ten years, I’ve talked about a lot of wrestling. I mean, a whole lot. I don’t think I missed more than five TWNE columns in any given year, so that means I was pretty much here for every big story in the past decade. With that in mind, here’s a selection of the best and the worst things I had to deal with in that time.
Shockingly, my 411 career has been almost as long as that of John Cena in WWE. In fact, the month I started was the same month that he turned face in time for Survivor Series, one he would never look back from. The rise was meteoric from there, and believe it or not, myself and a lot of other people were right behind him. At least, we were initially. |
||
Ten years later, it seems like everything in wrestling has changed except the guy on top, that same John Cena. Now, we deal with cries for a heel turn that will never come, WWE ramming his “good guy” image down our throats, and a stranglehold on the WWE main event scene that seems like he’ll never relinquish. At least he can still wrestle great matches when called upon, and he’s an amazing human being, but at this point, all we want is a period of time where he just isn’t around. Is that too much to ask? |
||
A WWE wrestler whom I’ve followed from his first match, watching him climb from the lower card to multiple time tag champions to the Rated R Superstar, and when he cashed in his MITB briefcase at New Year’s Revolution, it was one of the happiest wrestling moments I’ve ever had. He’d win a bunch more over the years before being forced into retirement, but he always has been, and always will be, my boy. |
||
Emotionally, the sudden death of Eddie Guerrero was pretty much my lowest point as a wrestling fan. It is literally the only time I have sat at my computer and, despite knowing what I had to write about, having absolutely no idea what I could possibly write to explain exactly how I felt. I also remember most of what I’ve written over the last ten years, for the big news at least, but to this day, I still have no idea what I wrote in that week’s column. |
||
It’s kind of ridiculous, because the wrestling on the show wasn’t anything to write home from, but the very first One Night Stand was one of the best PPV’s I’ve ever watched. It was unorthodox, it was unique, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime event that could never be duplicated (even though they continued to try). |
||
When TNA moved to Monday nights and into direct competition with WWE, I’m pretty sure we all knew how it was going to end. There was faint hope that they might at least provide an exciting product with the added competition, but instead they put on a terrible first show, while WWE countered with the return of Bret Hart. It was over before there was even time to change the channel. |
||
They may have screwed up the ending, but they still can’t take away the initial Pipebomb promo, and the incredible match at Money in the Bank. It is a promo and a match that are as close to perfect as you will find in the modern era of wrestling, and I love every minute of both of them. |
||
Specifically, the weekend before WrestleMania XX, when the surprising news dropped that Lesnar would be checking out of WWE after the PPV. It created a shitstorm of massive proportions, and it indirectly led to WWE’s policy of 50/50 booking and start-stop pushes to ensure that nobody, ever, thought they were bigger than the company. Also, it cheated us out of years of Lesnar matches that could have been potentially awesome. |
||
One of the best absolute blood feuds I’ve ever seen in pro wrestling, as Jericho just kept hounding Shawn week after week for perceived acts of hypocrisy (touched off by Shawn retiring Ric Flair), and then they’d go on PPV and just tear into each other in increasingly brutal bouts that were absolutely must-watch. |
||
It happened, and it will colour the face of wrestling until the end of time. It’s hard to deny that no one action has had a greater effect on wrestling as a whole than this one. I suppose on the bright side, it did help thrust serious concussion research and painkiller addiction into the spotlight, both in wrestling and professional sports, but the price was just so very high. |
||
Inactive List as of 11.04.13
WWE
– Christian, out indefinitely as of September 2nd (concussion)
– Evan Bourne, out indefinitely as of March 19th, 2012 (foot)
– Mark Henry, day-to-day as of September 1st (hamstring)
– Sheamus, out 4-6 months as of August 5th (torn labrum)
TNA
– Zema Ion, out indefinitely as of May 17th (appendectomy)
Transactions
– Brad Maddox, WWE, returned to television on November 11th Raw
– Kassius Ohno, NXT, released from his contract
WWE Champion: Randy Orton
– 22 day reign, defeated Daniel Bryan on October 27th (Hell in a Cell PPV) to win the vacant title
– Next title defense: vs The Big Show, Survivor Series PPV
World Heavyweight Champion: John Cena
– 22 day reign, defeated Alberto Del Rio on October 27th (Hell in a Cell PPV)
– Next title defense: vs Alberto Del Rio, Survivor Series PPV
WWE Intercontinental Champion: Curtis Axel
– 155 day reign, defeated former champion Wade Barrett and The Miz in a Triple Threat Match on June 16th (Payback PPV)
WWE United States Champion: Dean Ambrose
– 176 day reign, defeated Kofi Kingston on May 19th (Extreme Rules PPV)
WWE Tag Team Champions: Cody Rhodes and Goldust
– 35 day reign, defeated The Shield on October 14th (Raw)
WWE Divas’ Champion: AJ Lee
– 155 day reign, defeated Kaitlyn on June 16th (Payback PPV)
WWE NXT Champion: Bo Dallas
– 159 day reign, defeated Big E Langston on June 5th (NXT)
WWE NXT Tag Team Champions: The Ascension
– 40 day reign, defeated Corey Graves and Adrian Neville on October 2nd NXT
WWE NXT Women’s Champion: Paige
– 117 day reign, defeated Emma on July 24th NXT to become inaugural Champion
NOTE: NXT Title reigns only count what has aired on TV, not when changes occur at tapings.
TNA Heavyweight Champion: VACANT
– title vacated by Dixie Carter when AJ Styles left the promotion as Champion
TNA World Tag Team Champions: The Bro-Mans
– 29 day reign, defeated James Storm and Gunner on October 20th (Bound For Glory PPV)
TNA X-Division Champion: Chris Sabin
– 29 day reign, defeated former champion Manik, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, and Austin Aries in an Ultimate X Match on October 20th (Bound For Glory PPV)
TNA Television Champion: Abyss
– 169 day reign, defeated Devon on June 2nd (Slammiversary PPV)
TNA Knockouts Champion: Gail Kim
– 29 day reign, defeated former champion ODB and Brooke Tessmacher in a Triple Threat Match on October 20th (Bound For Glory PPV)
De Marco has The World’s Most Dangerous Column.
Acero has The Wrestling 5&1.
Harder has The Professional 3.
Wojcik has TNA Impact Rankings.
Daniels has The Ten Count.
Dino has Smart Marks.
This week on After Dark, I struggle to stay positive in the face of a PPV with no real build, but I end up being forced to mock the concept of Raw Country, then talk about Kassius Ohno’s departure, and the future of Los Matadores!
And in Co-op Multi, it’s Week One of new console launches, and we talk about Sony’s launch issues, the problems with launch lineups, and the fallout from BlizzCon! Plus, we announce the winner of our Scariest Game of 2013 Contest Giveaway!
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 **COMING SOON**
Stealth, Inc.
The Last of Us
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Marvel Heroes
Hakuoki: Warriors of the Shinsengumi
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Dragon Fantasy: Book One
Guacamelee!
BioShock Infinite
Dead or Alive 5 Plus
Generation of Chaos 6: Pandora’s Reflection
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable
411 will have live coverage of Raw tonight starting at 8 pm EST.
From our promotional department, I’ve been informed that if you really do like 411Mania and all it provides, or even just me (and really, who doesn’t like me), don’t forget to bookmark the site in your browser or make 411 your homepage, and tell all your friends about how awesome 411 is.
And don’t forget, you can follow all of the everyday goings on in 411 on Twitter.
Stephen’s Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma
That’s our show, I will be back next week. Also, don’t forget 4PC in the Games Zone on Wednesday, and the TWNE After Dark podcast on Wednesday, airing live at around 11 pm EsT on Spreaker.com, posted on 411 shortly thereafter. Plus, Co-op Multiplayer, now on Saturdays at midnight EST.
Here it is, your Moment of Buddy.
Aren’t You Cold?
Because I’m A Little Cold.
Have a good one, always be a fan.
