Your Favorite Wrestlers Ever: Vince Morales

Now that my own favorites list is out of the way, I posed the question to some of my colleagues in the fan/writer community. Who are your favorite five wrestlers?

Today's entry comes to us from Vince Morales, writer of the Milwaukee Brewers' blog Miller Park Drunk. You may remember Vince on here from an excellent guest blog he submitted after the Money in the Bank PPV, one he was in attendance for. It's funny, aside from the Phillies, the most followers on Twitter/TWB superfans I have from a single fanbase belong to the Brewers. I must be in a weird pocket on the Internet, or maybe I'm just huge in Wisconsin. Anyway, here's his list:

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Two best friends, two top spots on Vince's list
Photo Credit: Pro Rasslin.com

When people say that wrestling is cyclical they usually mean that it goes in cycles of “good” and “bad”, but what they actually mean to say is that it goes in cycles of “popular” and “unpopular”. Wrestling is always good and it is always bad. It always has been and it always will be. To me wrestling is very cyclical in that my favorite wrestlers, the people that keep me tuned in, always change.

When I first discovered wrestling my favorite wrestler was Razor Ramon. He had the best finisher and he exuded coolness. As I grew older his ring work would decline and as I would learn from the internet he was a drug person. As my favorite wrestler he failed me, both in and out of character, and I soon began to wonder why I ever thought he was the best. The same thing happened with the 1-2-3 Kid.

Another early favorite of mine was Hunter Hearst Helmsley. (Seriously.) When he was the Connecticut Blue Blood you could definitely tell that he had “it” and it was fun to watch him grow. When he joined D-X I loved every minute of it. People forget now that it’s been done to death, but when he first came out with HBK because they were “really” friends it meant something. When he ascended to leader and brought in another one of his “real” friends, my old favorite X-Pac, it was great. Now? I cringe when I see him. The young guy trying to get over turned into a legend with extremely low self esteem and I wanted nothing to do with him. Again, a favorite of mine failed me in and out of the ring.

(Quick Triple H tangent: How does he not have more moves? The Undertaker can finish you with a chokeslam, Hells Gate, Last Ride or Tombstone. John Cena has the Attitude Adjustment and the STFU. CM Punk has the Anaconda Vise and the GTS. Even Randy “chinlock” Orton has the punt, RKO and second rope DDT. Triple H has the Pedigree. That’s it. With his ego how did he never say “You know what? I’m going to get the claw over as my new finisher” and just roll with it. I’m convinced this is why his match with Undertaker sucked.)

It never fails me that I find a wrestler to call my favorite and he fails me. Scott Hall let drugs and alcohol run his life. Triple H became the coolest, toughest and smartest. Chris Benoit murdered his family. I realized Raven wasn’t that good. John Cena won too much. Kurt Angle took himself too seriously. Samoa Joe went to TNA. On and on it went and my favorites quickly became people I didn’t want to see. Wrestlers are cyclical.

So when TH asked me who my favorite wrestlers are I didn’t know how to answer it because my favorite wrestlers today probably won’t be my favorite wrestlers tomorrow and one day I’ll probably regret ever calling these guys my favorite. With that being said, here’s my list.

5b. Stone Cold Steve Austin - Steve Austin is the greatest example of the cyclical nature of this list. In his heyday there is no way he’d be left off this list. He was the best wrestler, the best character and the best promo. I loved his heel turn and I loved it even more when the Invasion was over and he just came out as a babyface like nothing ever happened. Then he seemed to stop caring. There was that thing where he hit his wife. I don’t like to comment on things like that so I won’t, but it does make a person seem a lot less heroic. There was also that thing when he refused to job to Brock Lesnar and just went home. He eventually came back, but he was just stale. Drink beer, stun someone, rinse and repeat. Maybe it was the writing, maybe it was a lack of motivation, but Stone Cold just wasn’t Stone Cold anymore and I could live without him. Then Tough Enough happened. During that show I remembered the Stone Cold I loved and why he was one of the best talents I’d ever seen. Stone Cold ripping on reality show punks should win awards. The show seemed to give him his mojo back and made a potential program CM Punk sound like the greatest thing ever.

5a. Randy Savage - I never, ever got sick of the Macho Man and I never will.

4. Bret Hart - In 1997, I had an email newsletter called The Pedigree. It was the dumbest thing ever. I was 15 and I didn’t even know who Dave Meltzer was, but somehow I sent out a twice weekly pro-wrestling “newsletter”. I also had a hotline. When the whole Montreal thing was going down I refused to believe it. I left an angry message on my hotline how there was “no way” Bret Hart would ever leave the WWF and Dave Meltzer doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. (Which, in retrospect, is true most of the time.) I loved Bret Hart and I couldn’t imagine a WWF without him. When it all went down and what happened ended up happening it was the end of my innocence as a fan and the end of my newsletter. I knew that things were pre-determined before, but Montreal showed me just how real and fake the whole thing is.

My feelings on the situation always change (From How could Vince do that? to How could Bret be such a mark for himself? and back), but I always loved Bret Hart. He’s apart of a ton of my favorite matches and he’s the one guy I’ve ever really wanted one more match from.

Montreal question that’s always bothered me: If Bret refused to lose in Montreal because of his legacy (or whatever) then why did he allow them to turn him 200 times in WCW? He said in Wrestling With Shadows that he couldn’t be a heel in Canada, but then he was never that character again. Had he given up? Was WCW only about the money for him? Never made sense to me how he was so worried about his portrayal towards the end of his WWF run and then completely stopped caring about it in WCW.

3. Chris Jericho - I loved Chris Jericho from the moment I saw him as a crappy babyface that turned his back to the crowd in WCW. He was a nerd, but he was one of my favorites based strictly on his ring work. He was also one of the first guys I traded tapes for. As the mic skills came my fandom grew and grew. He was a channel changer in WCW and when he went to WWF that was game over for the Nitro set for me. His handling in WWE dropped him off my radar for awhile like so many wrestlers before him, but he came back strong and his second run in WWE solidified his spot as one of the all-time greats.

He also wrote two excellent books that solidified Chris Jericho as both a guy who gets it and a guy who I would love to hang out with.

2. CM Punk - I don’t know how he ended up here. I was never a CM Punk guy. I liked Samoa Joe. He was the bad ass. He was the one with the Kobashi match. He was the one the people warned in chant about their imminent death. CM Punk was good, but he was never my guy. When he went to WWE I was like “Yeah, cool,” but he was never a guy that I used as a reason the WWE was messed up. He got a good push and he was on TV enough that I appreciated him, but that was it.

Then Straight Edge Society happened and he said “Bring me Jared from Subway.” Then the feud with Randy Orton (the best built match at Wrestlemania imo) happened where he actually made Randy Orton seem somewhat interesting. Then Money in the Bank happened and I don’t know how he could be anywhere else. Money in the Bank was the first PPV I attended live since Over the Edge in 1998, it was my first live WWE show in five years and it was the greatest show I’ve ever been to. Since that show my interest in wrestling has waned quite a bit. Not because I don’t like it anymore, but because in some strange way I feel like I’ve reached the apex of my enjoyment of wrestling at that event and I’m not sure I can ever get that back.

1. Colt Cabana - I just started actively following Colt Cabana about four months ago so his placing on this list might seem a bit suspect to you, but Colt Cabana absolutely belongs here. Colt Cabana is professional wrestling. I’ve watched wrestling for a very long time and I can’t remember a single wrestler who put a smile on my face every single time he stepped into the ring. Jericho and others can make you laugh with their promos, but nobody’s in-ring work is responsible for more smiles and laughs than Colt Cabana.

Cabana’s outside projects help too. The Art of Wrestling is pretty much the greatest thing ever, Wrestling Road Diaries is a great documentary and Creative Has Nothing For You is always good for a laugh. If the Colt Cabana stamp of approval is on something than you can pretty much guarantee quality.

None of this is why he’s here though. Colt Cabana is here because he’s an inspiration. Not to get too inside baseball, but I’ve had a pretty crappy year. Like real crappy. Fired from my job, breaking up with my girlfriend, moving back home for a couple months, it’s been the year of not-Vince. I got depressed and dwelled on that for awhile, but Colt Cabana was always positive and on the Art of Wrestling he talked about that positivity and it really spoke to me. On one episode he spoke about an old story that inspired him about Lanny Poffo where Lanny said there were two buses, the happy bus and the sad bus, and that he was on the happy bus. That story spoke to Colt and Colt telling that story spoke to me. Life is too short. Get off the sad bus and get on the happy bus. It’s much more fun over here.

Your Favorite Wrestlers Ever: Bill Dempsey

Now that my own favorites list is out of the way, I posed the question to some of my colleagues in the fan/writer community. Who are your favorite five wrestlers?

Yes, I'm still taking submissions. So yeah, if you want to send in a list, feel free. If you don't have my e-mail, well, now you do. tom DOT holzerman AT gmail DOT com. Just sub the DOTs out for .s and the AT out for a @ and you'll be fine. Anyway, this unordered list comes to us from one Bill Dempsey, one of my oldest running buddies on the 'Net. We started out together in e-feds, and when I tell you he was one of the two best handlers I've ever come across, he's one of the two best handlers I've ever come across. Bill now works for HBO, and he's met some pretty cool celebs, but he still gives lil' ol' me and TWB the time of day. Here are his five favorite wrestlers ever. Enjoy!

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Two of the best, two of Bill's faves
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Steve Austin - When thinking about the Austin era I got a little hung up on who my favorite guy was from those years. Strong cases can be made for The Rock, Angle, Jericho, Benoit (I know) and several others. But the fact is that when I consider it I still think of it as “The Austin Era” and that says it all. Not that it’s easy to leave Rocky off the list, as I look back on his contributions with a lot of joy, but Austin was always more fun for me, because he was an ass kicker who could force some comedy from time to time whereas Rock excelled with humor, but I didn’t always buy his ass kicking. Chalk it up to personal preference. Then there is the physical aspect of Austin, where, beyond his frankly limited moveset (post knee surgeries) he was one of the best bumpers I have ever seen. The guy bounced around like a rubber ball and always made things look like they hurt, which is a really under-rated skill, I think. The great thing about anyone on this list is that by the time they are in the discussion you can look back at the early parts of their career and appreciate them more than you did at the time. Not that Stunning Steve was ever not fun to watch but knowing what he would become, I find it really cool to go back to the Dangerous Alliance Era and watch him knowing what he was growing into. He was a guy that excelled at two vastly different characters and also bridged the gap between those two characters with a masterful run as half of one of the greatest tag teams in history. Once he got to WWE the record speaks for itself. Yes, in the later years he became sort of a caricature and things got repetitive, but I appreciated that he tried to go heel and wish we had seen where that was going minus the Trips injury and the Invasion angle. And the fact remains that starting with the Bret Hart feud right up through WrestleMania 17 I don’t know that I’ve ever had more fun watching a single guy, and that is despite Russo booking a ton of that stretch.

Bret Hart - If I were putting these in order I might have Bret Hart listed as my favorite wrestler of all time. He’s just so good at everything. He certainly doesn’t have the promo skill of Flair, but minus that, I think he is everything we all think of when we talk about Flair, just better at most of it. Like Flair, his matches definitely have a similar feel and flow about them, but I find them much easier to go back and watch again, despite the fact that Flair’s super high end stuff is probably better than Bret’s if I’m being honest. But seriously, name a bad Bret Hart match. Even if you can come up with one or two (and the McMahon thing from a couple years back doesn’t count) you’ve gotta admit it’s not easy to do and the fact that he was such a consistent guy with so many different opponents is unreal. He bumped great, his offense was always crisp and tight, and his psych almost always made sense – the perfect triple threat. Again I find myself heaping a lot of the same praise on Bret that is usually reserved for Flair, but where Bret gets the edge in my eye is that he stopped before becoming a total joke (notwithstanding that it wasn’t really his choice). We have the benefit of not having to have had to watch Bret decline the way we did with Flair. In fact, if not for the move to WCW, who horribly mismanaged his career (he’s still got good matches there, but the whole period feels like a bore, minus that one match with Benoit and maybe some Goldberg stuff), I think Bret might be in the discussion as a unanimous Best Ever guy.

Vader - I’m very comfortable listing Vader as the best big man I have ever seen if we’re talking straight peak. Other guys have lasted longer (Taker comes to mind & we can argue other names depending on how we want to define the term “big man”) and it’s impossible to ignore Vader’s almost immediate fall from grace when he showed up in WWE, but at his best, he was clearly in the conversation for best in the world, big man or not. Obviously the matches with Sting are legendary, the Starrcade match with Flair is nearly perfect and the Cactus Jack stuff was way ahead of its time. Beyond that he was able to pull off remaining a scary no nonsense badass in a particularly goofy time in WCW in the days before and just after Hogan’s arrival and right up until Hogan killed him dead. Even after his WWF debut he had a few standout matches (vs. Bradshaw at Breakdown, Michaels at SummerSlam, & the Fatal Four Way come to mind) but he was clearly done by then and just got fatter and less motivated. But for 5 or 6 years before then he was absolutely must-watch and his matches tended to make everyone else’s look that much worse in comparison, which is a pretty good gauge of talent in my book.

Brock Lesnar - I went back and watched the Iron Man match with Angle last night, which is my first exposure to Lesnar in years. He totally holds up. Definitely the most natural and gifted wrestler I can think of. Just completely fluid and instinctual and a guy that just looked like he knew what he was doing at all times, not only throwing guys around like a gorilla, but actually wresting smart matches. Even the infamous botch at WrestleMania was something he went for 100%, just believing he would nail it. I can’t imagine how good he would have been if he actually liked wrestling and stuck to it. He couldn’t really talk, but he didn’t need to, and who knows if he would have developed that skill or not. Either way, I think we’d be talking about him as a GOAT as far as in-ring is concerned, and as mentioned above, depending on your definition probably calling him the best big man ever. Sadly, his run was way too short, but even with just those few years we have incredible matches to look back on with Hardy, Undertaker, Rocky, Angle, Big Show, Benoit (yeah, I know) & Guerrero. Just thinking about this now as I write it a Lesnar/Vader match with both guys at their prime would have been fucking ridiculous (and arguably we never even saw Lesnar in his prime). Not to mention how incredible a Lesnar/Mike Knox match would have been (I think Knox may seriously be my favorite guy from the past 5 years, although there are clearly guys more talented).

Randy Savage - Like everyone else, I remembered how much I loved Randy Savage when he died. My only real beef with him is I don’t think he had a single match worth watching once he left the WWF (and didn’t have many after his “retirement” match with Warrior, although the Flair match at WM8 is the clear exception). That said, even as he got older and less mobile and his matches all started blending together, he remained an exciting guy to watch just because he was so insane. The intrigue surrounding whether he would join the NWO was incredible right up until they had him join and become totally irrelevant. Still, he’s clearly the best that the WWF had in the WrestleMania era leading up to his departure and his resume in those 10 years is incredible. If he only had the two years between WrestleManias 3 & 5 he would be in the discussion as the best guy in the 80’s (with the year long Hogan feud being possibly the most perfectly booked main event program ever), but there is so much more to it than that, and as I get older I really enjoy his shitty weasely scumbag pre-WM3 heel act from a lot of the MSG and Boston Garden shows with him being the best wrestler on the card, moving at about 100 coke induced miles an hour at all times, blowing everyone’s minds collectively and cheating like hell without needing to. The guy was totally electric and it was so obvious that he had to be moved up the card. Just an all around great, with the only real complaint being a slightly repetitive offense, which he made worth watching by being completely crazy at all times.

Your Favorite Wrestlers Ever: Butch Rosser

Now that my own favorites list is out of the way, I posed the question to some of my colleagues in the fan/writer community. Who are your favorite five wrestlers?

Today's entry comes to us all the way from Rey Mysterio country from one of the original TWB superfans, Butch Rosser. An old e-fedding buddy of mine, Butch currently spends his life DJing, watching wrestling and eating carne asada burritos just a scant few miles north of where those things would be wholly authentic. He also is the first entrant to be so damn verbose that I have to throw in a jump tag here, so yeah, if you're reading this from the main page, you'll find about 95% of what he wrote after the jump. It's all good though. Real, real good.

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Two legends surrounding a dick
Photo Credit: WWE.com

DISCLAIMER: This ensuing list is of my favorite five wrestlers. If you don't like it, by all means feel free to choke to death on a bagful of AIDS-infested hobo dicks. That is all.

--Management.

5. Chris Jericho - Growing up in God's country - known to the rest of you mere mortals as San Diego - I grew up watching lucha libre on Saturday nights, and on Sunday mornings when the commercials came on football games. Like Australian rules football, I didn't get all the cultural nuances but I loved the Big Giant Points I could pick up on in my prepubescent days. I loved the fact there were evil referees that for no good reason were held in just as high a regard as the good referees. I loved the masks. I loved the fact grandmas swung purses at the meanies.

And into this world stepped a blonde-haired man nicknamed Corazon de Leon.

Watching Chris Jericho in lucha libre was jarring. It was like if they recast that Pig World episode of the Twilight Zone with Maryse as the lead. But he had a lot of talent, that much was obvious, and the fact he was a bad guy who the fans quickly derided with Corazon de Pollo just got me even more interested.

That was over 20 years ago. Watching him making WCW watchable in his brief moments when the spotlight wasn't on the nWo was always good (#4: ARMbar, the trip to Washington, the Ted Turner letter, #457: Canadian armbar, the slow-burning Malenko angle, #583: Mexican armbar, Ralphus, etc). Around this time, there was also a series of tubes that informed me that the people backstage writing the show weren't giving Jericho a fair shake. I thought that sucked. And as time passed, it became increasingly frustrating for me to watch Nitro at all. Like watching Brian Krakow virtually kill himself for Angela Jordan over and over again only to get run over by some pretty boy WHO COULDN'T EVEN FUCKING READ, Jericho's Sisyphusian efforts to make himself a commodity despite the tidal wave of idiocy he was swimming against only further put me in his corner.

And then his contract was up. And then he was off for the Promised Land.

I was one of those about to rock and WWE set the clock.

From praying to catch a moment on Thunder to smacktalking the Rock? What the fuck is Nitro? GO JERICHO GO!

In his first face run he helped elevate Stephanie to the highest realm of heeldom, paired with the Rock (how WWE never made those two a Lethal Weapon movie is some king-sized bullshit) for some of the most entertaining promos ever, and, oh, yeah, he and Lord Voldemort kicked out the mothereffin' jams over the IC belt before taking down the Two-Man Power Trip in what's probably the greatest tag match to never exist.

In the first heel run, despite being hHhampered (GOOD GOD AM I CLEVER OR WHAT) by some WCW backstageesque fuckery he still got to be a slimy, slimy undersized heel who still managed to escape with the belts. He & Shawn Michaels put on one of the best WrestleMania matches of all-time. He grew a manly, manly beard that would only be superceded by Odin, the Lord, Mike Knox, and Balkan women's privates in the seventies. The Christian angle began, but unlike the Stephanie Angle angle paid off logically and brought him back in the graces of the fans naturally and organically. Hell, he was so awesome he got to kiss Trish and I didn't even want to blow up his house. Even when he was feeling emotionally burnt out he managed to help introduce MITB to the WWE lexicon, put over Shelton for the IC belt, and Cena on his way out the door. When he made his '07 return, I knew I was psyched to see him again and he would be bringing something swank to the table.

And I was completely right.

Just not how I was expecting to be.

Outside of Punk v. the World lately I can't think of an angle I've enjoyed more in the past few years than Jericho/Michaels II. Watching Chris snap over time, then slowly stripping himself of all the familiarities that marked his first go-round he made himself stand out. (Unfortunately, he also set an archtype for WWE heels that's being followed to this day, but you don't blame Rakim for all these bullshit rappers on the radio.) Calculating, self-righteous, willing to employ any devious means at his disposal, the act of becoming the Bizzaro World Barney Stinson made Chris Jericho and I get a feeling when he's rememebered, this run is what he'll be remembered for above all. Why wouldn't it be? The epic series with Michaels. He took Hall of Famers and made them relevant for a whole new generation. He went on another run of epics with Rey Mysterio over the IC where that storyline in totality alone would make an awesome DVD. He was so secure in his spot that he put over Evan Bourne and JTG, knowing heat was a thing he could generate like Rachel Maddow at an Iow caucus. And in his (to date) last act with the company he again put over a younger talent by letting Randall K. Orton punt him upside the head.

Worked both sides of the fence. Excelled in either role, and redefined them. Put on good to classic matches. Made new stars up and down the pike. Put over the next class of wrestlers and ceded the spotlight. And overcame the bullshit on a multitude of occassions.

What else can you ask?

4. Ultimate Warrior - One of the first wrestlers I ever saw, he was the one who got my attention and kept it. The theme music that made you want to just start whaling on people, the coked-out run to the ring, the rope shaking, the bright colors. There are tons of reasons to denigrate his current mental state for the most part, and unlike the other 4 guys on my list he won't be known for his five-star classics. But as a kid growing up I loved the Warrior because he was visually interesting, strong in a way I could never be, and pretty much punched the bad guys in the face. Failing having ever been a big Hogan fan, there was really only one other way to go.

And now, a top 3 that is pretty much predictable and been pored over by better men than I in this space, so forgive any tingles of deja vu you may get.

3. Shawn Michaels - To paraphrase the first biography of Foley, it wasn't so much the actual things Shawn did as much as the way he did them - literally everything looked good. As much as I feel LT doesn't get enough credit for being the most dominant defensive force of the eighties while being cracked out of his gourd, Shawn doesn't get enough credit for his early run. Sure, he was a backstage king-sized asshole, but truth came to shove he went out and usually put on four or five star classics.

He turned Marty Jannetty into the Andrew Ridgeley of wrestling.

He & Scott Hall took the ladder match to prominence and in a small way set the standard for all air-traffic-control matches to follow.

The Monday Night RAW match with the late great Owen Hart offered a mere amuse bouche of breaking the fourth wall that Mssrs Brooks and Levesque are dining out at today.

Even when he was acting in his own selfish self-interests, he turned "losing my smile" into a meme in our circles.

The Bret fued led to perhaps the most controversial match of all-time, and again, started something often imitated and never fully duplicated.

Considering how limited he was in movements, the passing of the torch to Austin was nothing short of a modern miracle.

And when he came back - not uncoincidentally enough like the #5, and their two feuds were the flowers growing for the past few years in the WWE's post-Attitude pot of dirt - he was just as good, if not better than he was before. It's so weird watching his Summerslam 02 return with the benefit of hindsight knowing that he was going to be right back to bumping around like a pinball, putting over the nascent members of Evolution in order to Make Them Names and having a string of good matches with John Cena.

The last time I saw Shawn Michaels, he was selling a match I barely cared about and got invested in by the force of that sheer promo and mostly his involvement in it alone and did some awesome non-verbal work to do it, too.

The joke in the nineties used to go "If God was a wrestler, he'd be Shawn Michaels." It's a funny line, to be sure.

But some of that humor is based in complete accuracy.

2. The Rock - Unlike Morrissey, the pompadour almost ruined this man's career. Also unlike Morrissey, there was nothing quiet or subtle about the connection this man made to the audience. Once the full force of his charisma was unleashed almost as a reaction to the rise of #1 - relax, we're getting there - he seemed to be a catchphrase machine that served as an ATM for VKM. Even haranguing the audience there was something that just made the fanbase want to laugh and cheer for him.

Within months of the only good and shocking Montreal Redux he was back to being cheered. Mick Foley as both opponent and running buddy continued making him a high-level face even when they were rebuilding the wreckage of the tag divison, and then with ol'-what's-his-face out of the picture he was able to cement himself as the babyface with the conch during a long-running feud with Triple H at his heel best.

And really, the Hollywood Rock era led to not only maybe the best pre-tween-Punk Titantron of all-time, but a charming blend of egomania, comedy, cowardice and periodic ruthlessness not seen outside of Jeff Winger. Hell, he singlehandedly tried make Shane Helms' sorry ass a major face and even put him over. The concerts were criminally good, and it was small wonder he'd go on to perform excellently on SNL (last time I used the phrase YOU DON'T TALK TO NICK ATRELL THAT WAY! in normal conversation: five days ago) and a string of big box-office blockbusters.

With any luck, I'll be yelling at him to beat the Fruity Pebbles out of Cena at Wrestlemania 28 live in Miami.

1. Steve Austin - In one life, a pretty boy technical dick.

In another, far more profitable life, a beer-swilling foul-mouthed everyman.

All the big stuff is going to get got in a little bit, but I wanted to spend some time talking about the first life since it was my introduction to Austin. I was just beginning to smarten up when it came to wrestling, even though I had yet to find the IWC. A handful of bad guys got in my good graces, and it was something I always felt slightly off about it. Stunning Steve Austin helped break that wall down. Arrogance is unearned confidence. Walking around like you're fucking awesome when you are fucking awesome? Completely justified.

Great as he was on his own, his Hollywood Blonds run with Brian Pillman may have put together my favorite year a tag team's ever recorded and highlighted by an insane match against the Horsemen where it was like watching Doomsday fight Lex Luthor, a four-man Can You Top This? of slugging and cheating and everything that makes a man love the professional wrestling.

When in the influx of Hogan sent Austin out, he started showing the signs that would rise him to prominence in WWE in ECW. I hadn't seen any of Austin's ECW run until well after the fact, but you can see him starting to become Stone Cold. It's like listening to Sandanista one day and London Calling the next. And then he went to Stamford and became a big giant star!

Well, that took about a year and a half.

And another year and a half to get to the throne after that.

Make no mistake about it, in a world where sometimes the most minor lower-card event or match threatens to Change Everything Forever, the Austin 3:16 promo actually did. It forced the WWE to go towards a newer and edgier style. It birthed the Anti-Monitor of the cool heel, the ruthless face. It led to Bret Hart going from top babyface to evil scumbag to out of the company in about - you guessed it - a year and a half. It filtered down the card, where an increasingly bratty Michaels and his big-nosed walking fanny pack would turn their own backstage assholeitude into on-camera assholeitude, thus providing another trough for Vince to get his duckets. Some dick with a pompadour who was being shoved down our throats cut his hair, found his promo skills, and would go on to electrify the world for multiple decades. It'd lead to Mick Foley becoming a lovable schizo who seemed absolutely determined to find out the limits of the human body and generally (and thankfully not literally, though almost) killing himself for his amusement.

Hell, that promo was so awesome you probably forgot it also birthed the also famous "and that's the bottom line" tag, didn't you? Understandable.

And, oh, by the way, despite a shitton of crippling injuries, Austin merely modified his style to account for his wrecked body. No longer the workrate king he was once he pretty much through sheer force of will invented the WWE Main Event Style. Though my favorite matches of his were the two big ones against Bret (the definition of getting over in a loss at Survivor Series '96 and then in maaaaaaaaaybe my favorite WM match ever, the double-turn submission match at XIII) his series against Foley as well as the Rock once they feuded over the Winged Eagle are all good-to-great brawls that have nuclear heat.
And count me as another Internet Contrarian who loved the heel turn. Even if it didn't work because of, well, long-term logic (when your ruthless SOB decides to get paid for being a ruthless SOB...how do I put this...YOU STUPID OLD MAN YOU KNEW I WAS A SNAKE) Austin's character logic was faultless: post car-rundown he was no longer secure in himself enough that he could beat a man whom he'd defeated at two other WrestleManias especially on the heels of a pay-per-view loss weeks prior to another rival, so he decided to get the fullest insurance plan necessary in order to hold the thing he desired the most in the world that made him feel whole like his old pre-accident self even if it meant giving in to his most hated rival. But of course, it didn't work: even when Matt Hardy was being valiant and draping his body over Lita's in a vain attempt to save her every time Austin swung the chair my reaction was a hearty yell of GET 'EM, STEVE!

Why was that? I liked the Hardys back then; hell, I usually liked anybody Austin faced in '01 when they were up against Austin. But I always, always rooted for Austin, no matter how Corporate he got. It probably didn't help his opponents' matters in my biased eyes that betwixt he & Kurt Angle they were responsible for my nominees for the two funniest on-camera moments in the history of Stamford: the Hero/Jackass exchange being played by World Champion-level guys emulating Daffy Duck & Bugs Bunny despite being well in their thirties (assuming) and the cowboy hat/badge saga with Austin's one-off reference to the Treasure of Sierra Madre being such a perfect button it drew literal laughs from the audience in real time despite the fact he was being positioned as an overlord of evil scumbaggery who would tee off on his former best friends and the grandfather Best Announcer I Ever Got To See (sorry, Gordon).

And there's the fact that they were throwing the babyface kitchen sink at Austin that year, and stacking a heel turn on top of the one he'd just done some 12 weeks prior to the first one, and yet have you ever looked at that list Austin went in against? A bunch of talent that at the time they were trying to elevate in order to diffuse his loss from the babyface side: the Canadian Chrises both seperately and togther in some awesome live TV matches and surprisingly underwhelming PPV fights, the aforementioned Hardys and Lita, even Spike Dudley got a few TV shows worth of spotlight and established himself as a plucky undersized babyface willing to fight for his woman. In addition to them, Austin also had to fight off the Undertaker and Kane, and went into the summer and fall exchanging some awesome PPV main events against and with Angle and Rob Van Dam. And none of it mattered. Not even when he apparently sold us all down the river (again, to a different set of McMahon).

We just liked Austin too damn much.
He was back on the side of the angels by the end of the year, with no weird grace period in order to fully transition him. The moment he decided to Stun this instead of that everybody threw up a collective "About fucking time" and cheered their lungs out all over again.

And lest you think his connections to making WWE history ended back in the aughts, let me just remind you: somebody had to put Mr. C.M. Punk in that #1 contendership match before Money in the Bank. And who's shirt was being worn when the Promo Heard Round The World. Maybe those are little seeds that may grow into something come next April in Miami. They could be.

What?

You don't know.

So there's my fave 5. And ladies and gentlemen, your brush with greatness is over.

Your Favorite Wrestlers Ever: Trey Irby

Now that my own favorites list is out of the way, I posed the question to some of my colleagues in the fan/writer community. Who are your favorite five wrestlers?

This special weekend entry comes to us from Trey Irby of the Wrestling Theory blog. He's on the younger side, his point of view comes from a later time. However, he's a really good writer and has great perspective. Here's his list.

---

Trey's #1 and #3
Photo Credit: WWE.com

1. Steve Austin - But of course, Austin is the touchstone. I don't want to discuss his personal life (though, ironically, his ex-wife Debra, of marrying Mongo and unfortunate abuse fame, lives currently in my hometown of Tuscaloosa). And honestly, I don't think I turned on him the way I turned on so many others simply because the situation being so long after my pure adoration went away but being so long before I realized the horrors of domestic violence. In a weird way, Stone Cold was like the redneck dad of the south. While I felt my dad and I were such polar opposites (me as overweight nerd vs. him as drug-addled biker), I still wanted adoration. Stone Cold was Dad as a character, but one who didn't take shit and kicked ass. I never got that sense of relating to my dad, but if I had, I would have wanted him to be Austin and to stop every threat that was in my way. But maybe it was kind of perverse to think of him in a domestic fantasy situation knowing what we've known about him for years. Still, Austin bloomed my love of wrestling, his promos were as emotionally responsive as could be, and he really holds that favoritism in my mind.

2. CM Punk - I don't care if this is early. If Rock got me to listen to his words, CM Punk got me to buy into them in a literal and figurative way. Money in the Bank 2011 was my first social pay-per-view experience (as well as the first purchased one I've ever seen live) and I felt that I had to give money to that effort. Punk's words are things I'm sure will get decried as "taking the words from the internet fans' mouths" but I wouldn't listen to Joe Q. Fan tell me that WWE has problems. Hell, I get tired of it when "journalists" in the business use their platform to compare EVERY SINGLE RAW to an event from the past that proved WWE "don't know what they're doing." But CM Punk saying those words changes things. Punk evokes a personality that we all want to be, and yet one that's shockingly normal. Whenever Punk sounds jaded, he admits that he is jaded then makes an aside that completely slays you. Punk picks at the things that every wrestler alive perceive as normal but he realizes the mainstream would find completely odd. And as he said, he's been the best total package in the business for years, and one that I totally believe in. I'll even buy that shirt when money comes in.

3. The Rock - If you smell and whatnot. The Rock was such a cool character that it's perfectly fine that his entire schtick was dick and vagina and ass jokes. That's the beauty of the Rock character, he always brought some sense of brilliant captivation. I remember showing his comeback promo to class (while doing a presentation on pro wrestling, go figure) and in the midst of the catchphrases (which EVERYONE IN THE CLASSROOM WAS COMPLETELY FAMILIAR WITH), Rock spoke in this eulogizing style. His brow-beating of John Cena almost became religious, and later even invoked religion as its target interest. Whether Rock intended it or not, he was playing up traditional metaphor to such a captivating extent that it was hard to not feel excited. Then Rock never showed up except via satellite and that was that, but Rock instantly proved time
and time again that it really is the promo that is as much the heart, soul, and interpretation of the business as the bumps themselves.

4. Chris Jericho - I don't remember if I watched the Jericho debut on WWF television when it first happened or not, since my wrestling memory is oddly like the memory of a concussed man. I just don't seem to have it, excepting Wrestlemania 2000, which might not be the best thing to remember. But man, doesn't it seem like something that would? I loved Jericho in WCW, even though I have no recollection of anyone in the cruiserweight division not named Guerrero and Malenko and probably just wanted to watch Goldberg (an honest number 6 on my list for kid me alone). And when he came to WWF, I sort of followed. Obviously, Jericho's second book gives a story about why it wasn't smooth sailing during his first stint and some of his best promo work kind of has to be forced through the non-PC nostalgia filter. But that second stint, god. Jericho really took his concept of an Anton Chigurh monotone bad guy and made it brilliant, as well executed as it could be. The Jericho/Michaels story was the saving grace of an era that kind of rushed through story to story, with a coup de grace being one of my personal favorite
matches at No Mercy 2008. And for that alone, it got me loving Jericho.

5. Chris Benoit - This is going to be controversial especially after posting a work about how I wouldn't pay tribute to Benoit. But truth is, in a kind of sad way, Chris Benoit got me back into wrestling. I barely watched the programming despite wasting away my sad high school years on the internet, discovering concepts like satire, oh, and porn. And it was somewhere around the infamous 2007 Draft Raw where Benoit went to ECW (after losing to Bobby Lashley in a great TV match) and I was excited. I knew that some good wrestling was to come on ECW and I always wanted to see where he went from there. Then we know what happened, and I realize how much taint could be over his matches. But I've looked back and I maybe just don't have the part in me to realize what is cringeworthy, but there's still a sense of extremely solid work to what he did. I was never a big "technical wrestling" guy, but Benoit always had this way of using the style he was given to tell a great, physical battle. A shame he never was able to fight off the mental battle.

My Favorite Wrestlers Ever: #2

Photo Credit: WWE.com

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin
Three Favorite Matches: vs. Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13, vs. The Rock at WrestleMania X-7, with Triple H vs. Chris Jericho and He Who Shall Not Be Named on RAW in June 2001
Three Favorite Moments: "Austin 3:16 says I just whupped your ass!", defeating Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV, supermarket brawl with Booker T

Brandon Stroud is going to mock me for this, but I was barely aware of Steve Austin before he came to the WWF. When I was younger, all I knew about WCW was that Ric Flair wrestled there regularly and that Hulk Hogan took the money and ran there when the steroid shit hit the fan, but apparently, Austin was doing some really killer stuff with Brian Pillman and Ricky Steamboat and even Flair himself. So, it stands to reason that maybe I'd have enjoyed that run and appreciated him more if I was a viewer of WCW in those days.

That being said, the guy is #2 on my list of favorite wrestlers ever with me only having seen his run in the WWF, so you know he meant something to me. He was the guy who singlehandedly kept my interest in wrestling until Rocky came into his own, making the WWF must-watch at the main event level while Vince Russo did his best to shit up the undercard with bullshit weaksauce worked shoots that tried to capitalize on the worked shoot stuff that Austin was using to make himself THE MOTHERFUCKING MAN. He had an attitude, hell, he embodied Attitude, and for that, he helped make the WWF a boatload of money, but more importantly, he helped entertain me. That's far more important in my book.

You gotta understand something about me back in the late '90s. I was a bookish nerd, a devout Catholic who listened to everything his high school theology teachers told him, and always wondered about why people broke rules and why people just couldn't live under the letter of the law. I dare say that when Austin broke out, he started to change my world view, because what he was doing was so fucking cool. I wanted to be cool. I wanted to latch onto the cool guy, so in a way, Austin made me the person I am today, a guy who isn't really afraid to question authority or wonder if the world might be a better off place with a little bit of chaos here and there. It may sound pretentious, but I don't give a shit. It's all true.

And on top of that, it's hard not to admire a guy who could back it up in the ring. I mean, Hogan was all well and good and all, but his matches were very limited at times. Yeah, it was the role he was asked to play, but there comes a time when it gets old seeing Hogan go up against giant, immobile guys who can't move, especially when the Intercontinental and Tag Title scenes were so fresh, athletic and vibrant. With Austin, he was following in the footsteps of maybe the most athletic top guys in WWF history to that point, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. He didn't come along and replace them as much as he shattered their auras as "the guy", but he also didn't do it by doddering around like Hogan either. Even after he had gotten hurt at the hands of an accidental botched piledriver by Owen Hart, Austin still was able to work some really good, really fun brawls against guys like Triple H, Mick Foley and The Rock.

So there it stands, my fandom for Steve Austin still remains at a fever pitch, especially to the point where if he came back for one more match, I may just lose my shit, especially if that match is against CM Punk, which is something that everyone is hoping happens. I'm never going to forget Austin's impact on my life or on my viewing habits as a wrestling fan. And who knows, one of these days, maybe I'll seek out his WCW and ECW runs and grow to appreciate him even more. Maybe that'll get B-Stroud off my back.

The Wrestling Podcast, Episode 12: Tom Kingsmill

Photo Credit: WWE.com

Episode 12: I Am Not a Fashion Nugget

Vol. 12 of The Wrestling Podcast details one of the liveliest weeks in wrestling history with good friend Tom Kingsmill. We talk about CM Punk, obviously. From his escaping with the title at Money in the Bank through his ComiCon confrontation with Triple H, he’s certainly been the talk of the wrestling community. Also on the docket are Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara and what match we’d book Punk for at WrestleMania. Listen!

Click here for direct link/download

Wrestling Six Packs: Patriotic Gimmicks

HOOOOOO
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Yesterday was Independence Day, in case this is the first time you've read this blog all day and live, say, in Kazakhstan or some other country where July 4th is just another day. But yeah, in America, it's a big deal. Since pro wrestling has become ingrained in American culture, of course several gimmicks within the artform have certain patriotic tinges. Here are six of my favorites.

1. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan

HOOOOOOOOOO! Ol' Hacksaw may be the most iconic embodiment of the Red, White and Blue. I've written about him at length before, so here's what I wrote in honor of his Hall of Fame induction:

Duggan was always a sentimental favorite of mine. Back when I first really got into wrestling, he was my second favorite guy behind Hulk Hogan, a guy whom today would probably have gotten a title run or two because of how over he was. Of course, Duggan was a hero of a long gone era, back when it was cool to be a patriot. Even for how jingoistic wrestling crowds still are and how well foreign heels still can get over, the all-American face has disappeared. Even if his gimmick was cheap and he acted like a borderline mental patient, Duggan's affable spirit and gung-ho, take no prisoners approach in the ring endeared him to several of the WWF's devoted fans, myself included.

And here's what I wrote about him last Fourth of July:

Was Duggan the best technical wrestler? Hell no. Was he the most handsome wrestler? No, he was as homely as a mule. However, he was resilient. He was tough. He never said die. He embodied America better than anyone else did. A blue-collar, flag-waving hero for all the kids to look up to. He made it proud to be an American. He fought Nikolai Volkoff and Iron Sheik. His flag waving made Communists everywhere shit their pants. When Ronald Reagan told Gorbechev to "tear down that wall", you know why Gorby complied? Reagan had Duggan standing right behind him. Jim Duggan's "HOOOOOOOOO!" haunted Fidel Castro's nightmares until the day his brain finally gave out. Any time China starts shit, Duggan heads over there with his 2x4 and reminds them why they'll never stand a chance, even though they outnumber us 4 to 1. So, let's hear it for America, July 4th and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, tough guy.

In short, fuck you, Hacksaw's the man.

2. The Great American Bash

The name of the event always conjured up images of summer. Cookouts, fireworks, the American flag. There's just such a tradition behind the name, even if the event had become "just another PPV" in its later years. I think there's a lot of potential for a special event here. I know the logistics of having PPV outdoors can be rough, but a cookout-themed event? Yeah, I'd go in a heartbeat.

3. The Lex Express

I extolled the virtues of the event that launched this bus-tour around the country earlier on today, so why wouldn't I list this? While Luger didn't exactly pan out for WWE as a top guy, I loved the Lex Express as a kid. So cheesy, but so fun at the same time. Plus, it's inspired the Flex Express today, so it gets a lot of replay value as well.

4. Kurt Angle

Angle made the American hero character archetype and flipped it on its head, playing up his persona so geekily that he got boos instead of the cheers that his forebears would have garnered. In the early days, Angle's character was so fresh and goofy that he was truly an innovator. It didn't hurt that his comedic delivery was on point.

5. Steve Austin

When you think Stone Cold, you generally don't imagine the Stars 'n Stripes. In fact, he generally embodies nihilism, selfishness and rampant recklessness. But for a hot second, he was the leader of an unlikely group of invaders into Canada to battle the Hart Foundation. Yes, Canadian Stampede, generally regarded as the best In Your House and one of the greatest overall PPVs ever, featured a 10-man main event that saw Austin defend America's honor, along with Goldust, Ken Shamrock and the Road Warriors, in the heart of Hart country, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He wasn't singing Lee Greenwood or draped in Old Glory, but on that day, Austin was a de facto patriot.

6. Tribute to the Troops

In a serious note, one of the best things WWE does each year is the Tribute to the Troops. It can be hip to forget the military or to bash them for the sins of the political fat cats who send them to war for their own personal gain, but the WWE never forgets these brave men and women. They actually are treated well all year long, gaining free entry into WWE events, but the best is when the company brings the action to them. It's a total fanservice show, but for these fans who may not be there to enjoy the show next year, well, it's well-deserved.

What They're Saying: CM Punk's Epic Promo

Punk's got people talkin', yo
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Here you go:

Razor (Fair to Flair)

Whether or not Punk is actually going to leave WWE is irrelevant; what’s important now is he managed to make people think that he really did just run down WWE, call Stephanie McMahon and Triple H “idiots,” say “Hi” to Colt Cabana and threaten to take the WWE Championship to Ring of Honor.

Again, the rules have changed, but the game is still the same.

Casual fans can sit back and watch the show like I wish I could, but it takes a different approach to get those jaded fans to feel something when watching wrestling. Am I suggesting that “worked shoots” should become the new norm? No, but it is an effective storytelling device in the right situation in the hands of the right actors.

I still use those terms, but I can see where Razor's coming from here. For me, I don't think enjoying the product and using those terms and analyzing in that light are mutually exclusive. That being said, I think I envy his outlook a smidge.

MVP

My verdict after watching the @CMPunk promo, he just had his Austin 3:16 moment. Don't fuck this one up @wwe .

Only if Punk isn't taking a break. The reason why 3:16 worked so well was because Austin went RIGHT into a feud with Bret Hart. Punk? If he leaves, then some of the impact (not all of it, but some of it) is lost over time.

Mark Madden

But the majority of the audience had little idea what Punk was talking about. Let Impact book for the IWC. WWE has prospered by booking for the casual fan. This was a rare departure from that. Let’s see how effective it is.

I'm all about giving equal time to all POVs, even if it's to a bozo. Anyway, Madden misses the point. Hardcore. But you know who got the point and articulates the shit out of it? The next guy...

David Bixenspan (Cageside Seats)

It was never implied that wrestling is a work, and the references catering to hardcore fans were structured in ways that could plausibly be understood by causal fans:

• Plenty of fans were watching when Paul Heyman was around and knew he was behind ECW. Everyone knows who Brock Lesnar is and plenty know why he left.
• Even if you aren't familiar with New Japan Pro Wrestling or Ring of Honor, you're immediately aware that they are other wrestling companies. Colt Cabana was clearly implied to be a wrestler in this strange "Ring of Honor" place.
• He laid out that John Laurinaitis was one of Vince's "douchebag yes men" before mentioning his name.
• Stephanie McMahon and Triple H are firmly established on TV as being a married couple.
• The ending implying that he was going to tell a story about the anti-bullying campaign being hypocritical in light of things Vince McMahon has said to him makes sense both with the hardcore fan interpretation of the real Vince McMahon and the on-screen character he portrays. It also works plausibly as the cut-off point, as sponsors, bad media exposure, etc. are more than just some references to other promotions existing and WWE higher ups being stupid/out of touch.

Take all that and wrap it up into a calmly furious, brilliantly delivered wrestling promo where he still positioned himself firmly as a heel (even using the infamous tales of fans that constantly harrass him and WWE wrestlers at airports in the process), and that's why it worked.

Not only are they awesome at investigative reporting, but they got opinion writing down pat too.

jerseyboy at A1-Wrestling

Oh, it was totally "teh shootz", but it wasn't as offensive here because the WWE doesn't do that all the time. The reason Russo's shoots suck is because TNA does them every fucking week.

Also, with Russo, his shoots are accepted as a part of Impact. WWE? They cut Punk's mic and abruptly ended the show. A promo like Punk's is only effective if people think that management is legitimately pissed at it.

Daniel Bryan

With revolution dripping off his lips with every word, @CMPunk was a god last night.

And you thought ol' AmDrag would be mad by Punk co-opting his "Best in the World" moniker... *emoticon*

Steve Austin

@CMPunk just melted my 52 inch TV with a scorching hot promo...delivery, content, and attitude...one of the best promos I've ever seen.

That's why a feud between Austin and Punk would rule. There's mutual respect there. You know they'd trust working with each other to make a story between the two be the most epic thing ever.

Justin Henry (Camel Clutch Blog)

Well, the final angle is what made it work, even if it’s as “worked” as anything else. But man, did Punk have that audience listening. Decent matches here and there, but that promo, oh man that promo.

Something else, man.

Co-sign.

Kurt Angle

CM Punk had classic promo last night. Good for Him. But if U ever say another word about Me again, Ur toast! If U don't believe Me, try Me!

More than likely referring to when Punk (rightfully) called him a drunk idiot after Angle went after Randy Orton... err, I'm sorry, when the "Twitter hacker" went after Orton. The last time I checked, threatening people for the things they say is generally frowned upon.

Bill Simmons

CM Punk's Monday Night Raw performance tonight was one for the ages.

By now, Simmons can be considered a "casual fan", I'd say. I'm telling you, this is watershed material here.

Brandon Stroud

What Traina isn’t considering is that Punk’s speech WAS real. It comes down to your definition of “real”. WWE is very concerned with making you think what they want you to think. If Kelly Kelly points at you and smiles as she’s trotting down to the ring, they want you to cheer for her. If someone says “each and every one of you” or “you people” into a microphone, you’re supposed to boo. This is supposed to translate into an emotional reaction that is hard to have if you aren’t five. That’s WWE’s reality.

What Punk did was smash a hole in that reality using OUR reality, the reality of the jaded fan on the Internet who wants what you’ve never seen to be the focus of television, and when that happens, wants something else. They didn’t support Scotty Goldman when he was doing picture-in-picture jokes on Smackdown, but they get excited when Colt Cabana is mentioned by name. They get excited when Matt Hardy shows up and blurts out “Ring of Honor”, but give up on him when they realize he’s still just in the WWE, and he’s still just Matt Hardy. That’s how we work, for better or worse. Most of us, anyway.

Punk took what we consider reality — held down wrestlers, pushes for guys who suck, “sports entertainment” replacing “wrestler” on TV, no promotion existing in the eyes of WWE except for WWE, Triple H, Stephanie, backstage WWE and basically everything Chavo Guerrero will be blogging about for the next six months — and used it as a tool to enhance WWE’s interpretation. That’s the genius of last night. Punk took a formula that doesn’t work (“everything else on the show is fake, but this part is real”), paired it with a few other things that don’t work (talking to the Internet on TV, mentioning backstage stuff 90% of your audience has no idea about), and willed them together into something that works by doing something nobody else who has tried has: being great.

Saving maybe the best take for last.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

I Want Jack Swagger vs. Dolph Ziggler

Good partner for Swagger, but better adversary?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Steve Austin was all over RAW Monday, and while his interaction with CM Punk got all the headlines and teased everyone's sense of inner markdom, arguably his most important segment came when Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero came into his office begging for a United States Championship shot. Austin granted it to him conditionally, as long as Guerrero wouldn't accompany him to the ring for his shot. He accepted. I didn't take it for a face turn, but it was a pretty telling tease, at least at the time.

Then, in the next segment, Ziggler came out for a match, followed immediately by Jack Swagger. Not really realizing that it could have been a tag match, I got really excited, thinking they really were turning Ziggler and we were getting a match between two of the best workers in WWE today. Well, it was a tag match, and it was good, so my excitement wasn't dampened for nothing. However, watching Ziggler take Kofi down during the match with an amateur-style double-arm takeover, it did nothing to sate my thirst for a match between the two blond-haired midcard heel standouts.

We all know Swagger's amateur background. It's part of his character. We're reminded of Ziggler's time at Kent State from time to time, but it's not obnoxiously pointed out. However, that background is there. I think for that reason, the two would mesh well. Then again, I'm a mark for chain wrestling, so maybe my view is skewed. But you know what? Chain wrestling, amateur stuff and the catch-as-catch-can style is pretty neat to watch. And it's my blog.

Even after that process is over, both guys are more than capable of bringing it in the ring. Again, they're two of the best workers in the company. I'm hoping they follow through on a face turn at Capitol Punishment just so I can see this series. Call me a dork, but hey, I know what I like.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

The Start of Something Grand?

Steve Austin and CM Punk have teased a rivalry over Twitter for a little over half-a-year now. It was getting to the point where I didn't think we'd see anything come to fruition on camera, but last night, we got the above-embedded teaser. It's classic, starting with Austin's "What's up, Punk?" intro, almost like he meant to mimic that great leporine performer, Bugs Bunny. What followed was probably the best thing to happen on RAW last night.

I have to wonder though, am I getting my hopes up artificially? This isn't really beckoning to the question of whether Punk sticks around or not₁, but any kind of build really is just blue-balls if there's no match here. Punk can go, Lord knows Punk can go with the best of them. But Austin? Even if he's healed enough from the injuries that put him out of wrestling in the first place, does he have the desire? Or is he just content to deliver stunners, drink beers and pop in every once in awhile to remind us why we love him in the first place?

I don't know, but hey, it's fun to dream, right?

1 - Still waiting for a primary source on that one.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

And Now, Angry Internet Meme Guy Asks WWE Creative a Question

Seriously, did ANYONE find any kind of sense in that decision by the anonymous RAW general manager? Do these writers have editors? Is Vince McMahon legit insane? Ugh.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

A Stunning Entry into WWE: Was It a Good Idea to Lay Out the Winner of Tough Enough?

Not the best debut for Mr. Leavine, is it?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Andy Leavine won WWE Tough Enough. I'm not going to pretend I was emotionally invested in him or the show because I watched maybe fifteen minutes of it total before the end last night, both scheduled and the part where it spilled over into the intro of the actual RAW telecast. I have to admit, the guy's got a good look and seems WAY better suited for immediate success than Maven, the winner of the first season of the first incarnation of the show.

However, his entry into WWE after winning the competition was inauspicious to say the least. He was greeted first by a slap from Vince McMahon that segued into the worst sell-job off a Stone Cold Stunner that I have ever seen in my life. I chalk it up to jitters and greenness, but it wasn't the sell-job that had most people up in arms. It was the act of the stunner itself that made folks upset. Why lay out a guy in his first real act as a WWE superstar? Wasn't the whole point to create a new, hot act through 10 weeks of personal investment? To squelch it there just seemed pointless to some, not as much to me, but to those who watched the show, yeah, I can see where they might be angry.

Maybe it's because I didn't watch the show and thus didn't really have much of an attachment to him. I don't know. Maybe it's because I also think that there's almost no way for someone to get completely derailed nowadays, or even ever. Heat is very much elastic. Look at Dolph Ziggler. Earlier this year, his push was bungled about as hardcore as you can fuck someone's momentum up. He's still over. He still can garner heat, although Vickie Guerrero does have a lot to do with that. Then again, Vickie didn't quite get that horrible Enri... what the fuck was his name again? The guy who was on the roster for a hot second before getting future endeavored last year? So forgettable.

This feels to me like one of those situations where the WWE really did something dumb, but where Andy may end up being fine because hey, he does have the talent enough that four WWE/WCW alumni saw it. Then again, I just don't see what the hell their philosophy in making guys "pay dues" is anymore. It's like, they're afraid of creating a Brock Lesnar, but like AnonymousJX pointed out, there are those who've been snakebitten by WWE's asinine "building" practices like Ki who point out that they don't want world-humbled indie wrestlers either and look for ego. It's like they're looking for the guy who's egotistical, but not too egotistical, almost as if they're trying to break people. Well, the breaking process doesn't really lend itself to getting guys over like the tried-and-true process of a slow build through the card does.

Yeah, I know that TE doesn't exactly seem like the kind of slow build vehicle I'm talking about, but then again, who said anything about the winner going right from the training dojo to main events? This is where the lack of a defined midcard and tag division hurts them the most.

So yeah, maybe my glibness over how Andy Leavine was treated is a bit wrong here. I want to think he'll be fine, but then again, their track record, both with TE in the past and NXT, seems to indicate that he might be in trouble. This points to a fatal flaw in how WWE treats true rookies, and that things like the Nexus angle, which we can all agree was executed well from debut until at least SummerSlam, are the exception and not the rule.

Hopefully, eating a stunner doesn't mean that Andy is the latter and not the former. If that's the case, and I'm USA Network, then I'd be pissed.

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