Coffee Table Thoughts
Why Dolph Ziggler vs CM Punk took place
On the
first episode of Monday Night Raw (or Raw Supershow), the WWE Title was on the
line. CM Punk had to defend his WWE Title against Dolph Ziggler. There were
various opinions on why this match was taking place.
Recent
news reports suggested that the segments of the Raw involving CM Punk were not
getting as much as expected views. This is after he has sort of become ‘the
man’ of the red brand and carried the WWE Championship with him for a few
months. So the obvious conclusion that people drew was that the Management had
decided to take the title away from him due to poor ratings. This led to many a
angry rants on many a message boards.
Some
others believed that it had more to do with Dolph Ziggler than with CM Punk.
You see, Mr Perfection has been giving Match of the Nights for the whole year,
has been cutting entertaining and engaging promos through-out the year and has
generally been showing a lot of charisma. I personally haven’t found his promos
to be outstanding but he has indeed been taking a lot of punishment in the
ring, has been involved in interesting matches and seems to be on the cusp of
big things. Having Vickie Guerrero as his Valet/Manager doesn’t hurt his
chances either. So when Dolph Ziggler was announced, all his well-wishers had
started predicting a WWE Title reign for him on the very first day of 2012.
I
personally thought that this match had neither to do anything with CM Punk
generating poor ratings nor anything with Dolph Ziggler being perfect. It
wasn’t about CM Punk or Dolph Ziggler but about The Miz and John Morrison. It’s
that simple, really.
By
putting the WWE Title match on the first day of the year for two consecutive
years, WWE has started another tradition right before our very own unsuspecting
eyes. In 10 years time, we would be witnessing the vignettes of The Miz vs John
Morrison and other highlights from 9 other editions of the first day matches
for WWE Title and the legacy involving it.
Umpteenth Column about Daniel Bryan
I didn’t
know him. I haven’t seen the 10 years of his independent wrestling career. I
haven’t seen any of his matches that won him the ‘Best Technical Wrestler’
Award by Wrestling Observer Newsletter for 5 years.
I first
read about him during the first season of NXT. I read his praises on various
parts of ‘IWC’. This was the time I was taking my entire wrestling intake
through reading and not by actually watching shows. I read how he tried to kill
someone in the commentary by a tie. I read that he was fired. I read how WWE
was so dumb for doing this nonsense of an injustice. I read how everyone had
already predicted that the seventh entrant for Team WWE against Team Nexus
would be Daniel Bryan. I read that he got a nice pop. I read about his promo
against The Miz. I read they had a good chemistry. I read that he became US
Champion. I read how awesome his match against The Miz and John Morrison was. I
read that both he and Dolph Ziggler had put not one, not two but three
wrestling clinics.
I then
saw his matches. I heard his promos whenever he got the chance. I heard his
entrance music. It was classic. I heard his second entrance music. It was
classic. I heard his third entrance music. It was classic.
I saw him
getting dropped of the Wrestlemania card. I saw him getting invisible
(Paradox).
And then
came the night. It was in June or July. I had predicted a winner. Daniel Bryan
wasn’t in the list of winner that I had predicted. He won. He became the
Smackdown Money in the Bank winner. I was disappointed.
No, No –
don’t get me wrong. While the above short timeline shows how little I know
about this guy and how I came to know about him, don’t for a second think that
I was not a fan of him. I was a fan of him before I saw his face. I was a fan
of him before I saw him fight. He was a 10 year veteran. He was considered as
the best technical wrestler. He was of small stature. These attributes were
enough for me to become his fan. When I actually saw him wrestle, I was in awe.
When I heard his promos, I saw charisma. I felt that the very fact that he
didn’t have charisma WAS charisma – it gave him a character, different from all
other characters. I liked how he used his story and logic in his promos. I
literally loved this guy.
That is
until he won the Money in the Bank. Sheamus, The Miz, John Cena, Randy Orton,
Kane, Big Show, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Christian, CM Punk,
Rey Mysterio, Mark Henry and Daniel Bryan. 13 Former-Current World-WWE
Champions. This is excluding Triple H, Undertaker, The Rock and Kevin Nash
because they will not be involved in any Title matches. Add to this list, Cody
Rhodes and Wade Barret, both of whom are on the cusp of main-eventing or
becoming the World Champions. And we get what is the problem with the current
product. Oh also, I don’t know, I am unable to remember, but there was some
other World Champion too. In recent times. He had won something else very
important too. Royal Rumble may be. Santino Marela?
The Miz
had what, a single United States Title reign? Same goes for Daniel Bryan. This
and they go on to become World Champions. We are already hearing people wanting
to see Zack Ryder become the WWE Champion by December 2012. By this rate, in
2-3 years time, it would be difficult to find a superstar in WWE that is not a
World Champion.
Look, I
get that it is good for Daniel Bryan. I understand that his years of efforts
have justified his title win. May be the character change that is in the works
may make him the most hated heel in wrestling since Hulk Hogan, but I wanted to
see his struggle in the WWE. I wanted to see him in the mid-card. I wanted to
see him wrestle his way through the glass-ceiling, so to speak.
Nevertheless,
I will enjoy his reign, the development of his character and his matches.
The Wild-Card Tournament
I have
missed all the impact wrestling shows of November-December. Not because I
thought that the shows were getting boring or because I was protesting against
the heel turn of Bobby Roode. I was finding it difficult to get the time to see
it. On top of that I couldn’t find a site where I can download the TNA PPVs for
we, which isn’t that difficult for the WWE PPVs.
Regardless,
there is news coming in that a tournament is currently underway to decide the number
one contenders for the Tag Team Titles. And apparently, the team of Samoa Joe
and Magnus have won the said tournament. So, they will go on to have a match
for the Tag Team Titles against the current champions Matt Morgan and Crimson.
This is
one of the reasons why I love TNA - The tournaments. A tournament is a story in
itself; it can evolve many stories at the same time. It also brings credibility
to the final price. These tournaments give the much needed sports like feel to
the business of sports entertainment.
TNA has
had a X-Division Tournament, a World Heavyweight Championship Tournament (Bound
for Glory series- which btw would have been the best story of the year 2011 for
me at least, if not for some of the shenanigans pulled during the tournament)
and now there is this Tag Team Tournament. And this one is called the Wild Card
Tournament, where in the participants did not chose their partners or something
like that. I will come with more details when I look up some of the past episodes
for this tournament.
I would
so like to see something like this in WWE and that too for Tag Team titles.
Come on WWE, still the idea!
Someone is finally out of the doghouse!
After
spending much of the year 2012 out of the WWE TV, finally Drew McIntyre was
seen on WWE TV and was given some segments to showcase his charisma as well as
an opportunity to wrestle on TV!
Don’t
get fooled by the loss or two that he got in these episodes though. He was
given time to showcase his charisma and give the management a reason to care. I
think he passed with flying colours in doing that. He is in a storyline, for
God’s sake! That cannot be said about the Tag Team champions or the Divas
Champion!
In a
matter of months, people will go all mad behind this man and waiting for a push
to – you guessed it right – the World Championship.
