Mission Accomplished!: How Zack Ryder Became a DIY Huge Star

Zack Ryder, searching for this week's Broski of the Week?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Zack Ryder finally arrived last night.

After months and months of rallying the WWE fans to put pressure on the company to give the man more of a platform to shine, Ryder got his ultimate reward in a video package, a spotlight position in a tag match as Jerry Lawler's partner against the Newish Nexus, badgering from Michael Cole and the pinfall victory with his finisher. Unlike other darlings of the Internet, Ryder did all this to massive applause. Those cheers have been there since the Long Island RAW where Ryder wasn't to be seen anywhere but on Superstars, and finally the attention from the front office has caught up to the fan reaction.

The biggest thing that this proves is that maybe, just maybe, WWE is wising up to the fact that it's not just "their" vision that creates stars. Ryder was unhappy with the amount of time on TV he had and the lack of merchandise that was being made for him, so he made a Youtube show and built a grassroots rapport with fans who already were supporting him from having watched him on ECW. Those fans spread the word, and Ryder himself found his coworkers who already liked him and what he was doing becoming more and more vocal about him needing more time to shine. Suddenly, Ryder had a groundswell of emotional investment that manifested itself through Dolph Ziggler after he did not appear on the main RAW telecast in his hometown. The "boys" and the fans have been two groups of people whose opinions really only seemed to matter when they fell in line with what WWE wanted to present recently. While there seems to be a sea change in that kind of thinking that has manifested itself through CM Punk, the Divas of Doom, Christian and even Mark Henry, Ryder still stands out as the starkest example of how DIY can work in WWE.

Don't make any mistakes either judging his rise, because it was as do-it-yourself as you could get in the corporate machine of WWE nowadays. I think that's what makes his rise the most satisfying out of anyone's right now. He saw an opportunity to innovate how one builds character in WWE, seized it, and now, his hard work is paying off. Because of my own biases, my two favorite moments in WWE this year were both at Money in the Bank, when Daniel Bryan won his briefcase and CM Punk kissed Vince McMahon goodbye, but I think a solid third for me was last night, when Ryder got the pin with the Rough Ryder, got the crowd to explode and then got to stand with Lawler as victorious. It's a testament to how well Ryder has done for himself. He proved that the party line passed down by Steve Austin on Tough Enough and repeated by Warrior in his Randy Savage tribute as what used to be "back in the day" still works, no matter how much evidence there is right now to the contrary. If you make your own way, you will be rewarded.

For WWE to survive, I think that credo needs to be adopted by more than just Long Island Ice Z. Churning out mass-produced, dime-a-dozen bland bodybuilders isn't going to create new stars for fans to latch onto. Having guys show their creativity and get people to support them? Yeah, that's going to work. Granted, not everyone can be Ryder, but you won't know who the Ryders of the world are going to be until you give guys the platform to shine independent of the writing staff. Maybe this might mean that a guy like Johnny Curtis will be able to improv a bit instead of doing those lame visual pun segments. Maybe it means Dolph Ziggler will be able to express himself more than just through deferring to Vickie Guerrero. Maybe it means Colt Cabana gets a second chance with the company to right the wrong of his first run as Scotty Goldman. Who knows at this point.

But what I do know is that last night, Ryder finally was made and finally at least earned his spot with the company for as long as they'll have him. WWE could do something stupid like not feature him ever again, but at this point, why would they? The guy can be a huge star for them, and I think the treatment he got last night was indicative of the fact that they know he can be huge for them.

And that makes his run last night the most satisfying thing to happen on the entire telecast. I think it's safe to say that Zack Ryder has finally made it, and I couldn't be happier.

Rey's Out, Give Hunico a Shot!

Hunico wants YOU to support his full-time move to the RAW roster
Photo Credit: FCW Wrestling.com

So, news came down today that Rey Mysterio's knee injury was a lot more serious than first suspected. He tweeted the news of his surgery, and reports are saying that it'll be 4-6 months before he comes back. It's a shame, given how much of a good verve he's had with both Miz and Alberto del Rio lately, but the man's health is paramount, so yeah, he needs to get on the shelf (and probably needed to do so BEFORE working at SummerSlam). That all being said, his absence leaves a huge hole on the RAW roster, both in fan reaction power and in match quality. While both John Cena and CM Punk bring home the bacon in terms of both of those things, well, having a main event with only two heroes, especially when one is tied up with Kevin Nash and Triple H, can be pretty stale.

The obvious answer would be to toss the ball to either John Morrison or Kofi Kingston (read, throw the ball to Kingston because he doesn't suck and his girlfriend isn't prone to allegedly get him in trouble all the time). I'd throw Evan Bourne into that equation because fuck you, Evan Bourne rules. Alex Riley's another option, if you're braindead and really haven't seen that outside of his first couple of weeks, he hasn't shown anything remotely close to a sign of him showing readiness for anything more than a Superstars main event (wow that was fucking wordy even by my standards). That being said, when one of those guys gets the call to be elevated, that leaves another spot open for a fresh face to come in...

Enter Hunico.

Who is Hunico? You've seen him the last two weeks, only not under his FCW-given name. He's been playing the role of Sin Cara for the last two weeks, and while Mistico will resume that role this week, the developmental luchador has turned some heads in a positive manner. While he wasn't as flashy as Mistico was in the Sin Cara role, let's face it, he looked a lot cleaner and didn't mess as much stuff up. That isn't to say he wasn't exciting either. In fact, I'm more impressed with what he's done because he was able to mix the excitement of being Sin Cara while actually looking able to be a WWE employee.

It's not like he was just some guy they just picked up and threw in the Cara mask either. He's been toiling in FCW for a bit now. He had a match with Seth "Tyler Black" Rollins that got a lot of pub recently, and he's been waiting for a shot to get a callup.

How do you bring him in? Well, you can do it one of two ways. The first way would be to debut him against the RAW job squad on RAW rather than on Superstars. Again, he's looking to be a long-term replacement for Rey Mysterio, a high profile spot as it is. There's a demand for masked luchadors who do cool high-flying stuff. So, you give him a debut match against Primo, work to the next week against Drew McIntyre and then maybe after that, who knows.

The second option would be to debut him in a tag team. As we've been seeing on RAW, the rumors of Triple H wanting to reestablish a tag division are beginning to come to fruition, and Hunico isn't just a singles wrestler down in Tampa. He's actually part of a regular tag team called Los Aviadores with another masked guy known as Epico. You want a real, homegrown tag team that'll bump like crazy for the incoming Kings of Wrestling or even for the underrated Nexus team? These guys are your tandem. It would give Hunico something to do to establish himself, and hey, maybe even Epico is good too, and you've got two future luchador stars, y'know, just in case Mistico flames out eventually.

Either way, the guy deserves a shot on the big stage with his own identity. It's hard to fill in for a guy like Mistico, and Hunico proved that he capable of impersonating someone as a stopgap. So, why not let him be himself and begin to craft his own legacy? I know my curiosity is piqued, and even if fans don't realize he was the replacement Sin Cara, I doubt they'd have a problem gravitating to someone exciting as a replacement for when Mysterio eventually has to retire.

CM Punk's Validation from... John Cena?

John Cena, WWE's narrator incarnate?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Last night's overrun did more than just provide groundwork for the Night of Champions WWE Championship match. When John Cena came out and lambasted Alberto del Rio for the way he gained the Championship at the end of SummerSlam, he did more than just wax hypocritically (I'll have more on that this week), he legitimized CM Punk as a top tier player.

Wait, what? Legitimized CM Punk? Yeah, he did. Words are powerful in wrestling, sometimes even moreso than the actions that will secretly speak to a wrestler's true intentions. That's why guys like The Rock could hold so much sway. When Cena spits fire like he did last night, he's in that elite category. So, when he told del Rio that he had no problem with the way Punk won the title from him last night, that was the biggest sign that hey, Punk now belongs and is worthy of your respect. Granted, a lot of people, namely, the men in the audience, already have given Punk their allegiance, but there are a lot of wrestlers who get support from the crowds who don't get it from management, so to speak.

For better or worse, Cena is part of the management now. It's not explicit, but if he gives you respect on camera, especially when it comes to a Championship that he seems to monopolize lately, then it's an explicit sign that you have made it and that people have faith in you. Granted, the fact that the show prior to the main event had heavy doses of Punk and Punk-related storytelling was another sign, and the fact that he's been the main focus of the main show for the last two months is another big sign. That being said, I look at Cena's stamp of approval to be the final part of his validation.

This is very important to remember when looking at his pattern of winning over the last couple of months. The more pedantic point of view would be to look at his wins and go, "HE ONLY WON AT MONEY IN THE BANK BECAUSE CENA WENT TO INTERCEPT SUPER DAVE OSBOURNE!" or "BAH! HIS WIN AT SUMMERSLAM WAS TAINTED BECAUSE CENA HAD HIS FOOT ON THE ROPES!" In a medium of entertainment where the finish can be everything, yeah, maybe I can see that as a lack of faith in Punk. However, when the Corporate Champion comes out and blatantly tells you not to pay attention to the finishes and instead pay attention to the body of work, then it's a big clue that the finishes aren't meant to be as analyzed as they're being and that yes, Punk belongs.

So that's something to chew on while Punk is away from the title to gain his revenge and to figure out who among the sleazy cast of corporate characters is going to be his Vince McMahon. Cena gave him validation, and whether you care about it or not, it's an important piece to the narrative.

Unfairly Unforgiven: Historical Perspective and Triple H in the Fall of 2000

Did we play The Game wrong too early?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

I remember vividly the build-up to SummerSlam 2000. Kurt Angle had won King of the Ring a few months prior and was staking his claim to the WWF Championship. Despite only being in the company for 8 months, he had gotten himself so over that he implicitly demanded to be counted among the big boys of the company, then The Rock, Triple H, Undertaker and Kane. He was given a big story being the third man in the Trips/Stephanie McMahon relationship. The Internet hordes, myself included among them, screamed for Angle to come out of the feud as the new top dog in the WWF, with Triple H cuckolded and the boss' daughter having a new, Olympic beau.

When that didn't happen at SummerSlam nor at Unforgiven, boy, was the reaction screaming bloody murder. It didn't matter that Angle would win the WWF Championship at No Mercy, the damage was done in that The Rock had to do what Triple H didn't do... put Angle over. At the time, many among us accused Triple H of being a political machinist, someone who was paranoid about his spot and thus screwed Angle out of elevation. In retrospect though, was that fair?

To begin to examine that is to look at the context. The most important part of this background information has nothing to do with the players or the storyline in question, but with the people criticizing it. Internet fans by and large seem to be a fickle bunch. Stereotypically, they're always looking for the next big thing, and if/when that person breaks through, the backlash almost immediately begins. As someone who used to get caught up in that frenzy a lot more than I do now (and I'm not going to sit here and say that I don't lose perspective every once in awhile), it seems a little shortsighted. Yes, pro wrestling companies need to be proactive in building new stars, but when you have a guy who just hit the main event, when is it that he has to start making new wrestlers stars, and how often does he need to do it?

That brings us to "Public Enemy #1", Triple H.

By the time SummerSlam had rolled around, it was a year or so since his official elevation so to speak. However, you could argue that he really wasn't cemented as a main eventer until the Royal Rumble and No Way Out, when he and Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack) tore the house down in two consecutive title matches, the latter being a Hell in a Cell. There's no doubt that he was entrenched as a main eventer by SummerSlam, but at the same time, he really was only cemented for eight months as a top guy. For Trips to start hearing the catcalls that he was a diabolical scoundrel after less than a year of really coming into his own as a main eventer in retrospect, when guys like Steve Austin and the Undertaker, just to name two, had years on top before the bloom came off their rose and they were called upon to put people over (and even then, you could argue that Austin never really did that anyway) in order to let them join the main event pantheon, seemed really premature.

I think the perfect example here is Bret Hart. While he went into WrestleMania IX as the WWF Champion, I think we can all agree he really wasn't "made" until a year later, when he finally felled the sumo warrior Yokozuna and got his first real (and one could argue only) WrestleMania moment. He was on top really for two years, I'd say, before he was called to the carpet to put over Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XII. In that time of course, he didn't win every match, but at the same time, the people he put over in high profile matches at the time - Bob Backlund and Jerry Lawler - were established in their own ways. I'm sure if the Internet were around as prominently in 1995 as it is today, there'd have been people moaning that Hart didn't put over Jean-Pierre Lafitte or his brother Owen.

However, when he put Michaels over at WrestleMania XII, it ostensibly made him. The same could be said for his role in playing the foil for Steve Austin the next year. Even though Hart won that "I Quit" match, Austin came out of it looking like a million bucks, and Hart changed roles in order to further enhance the budding star of the man who'd become Stone Cold.

Of course, knowing what know now, it did take Triple H a lot longer to put someone not on his level over in a meaningful way (Chris Benoit at WrestleMania XX and then Batista the next year). And yeah, Trips did weasel his way out of putting over a lot of guys who could have used the bump, from Kane all the way up to Goldberg (whom you could argue didn't need the bump to be considered a main eventer, but at the same time, the iron was hot at SummerSlam in 2003). But that's where the question comes in... how long should a guy be continually put over before he starts returning the favor?

Whether you think it should have been Kane at the end of that horrible Katie Vick angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T after the horrible racism angle or anyone else in the stretch between his comeback in 2002 until WM XX, can we all agree that maybe our angry mob was unjustified in 2000?

Then again, the reason why I rejected Triple H, at least at first, wasn't because of any political machinations. Seriously, I didn't really become "aware" of the backstage stuff until around early 2000, and by that time, I was already sick of Triple H. When he turned heel, he turned boring to me. The 20 minute promos to start RAW grated on me. He didn't have good matches with anyone not named The Rock, Undertaker or Mick Foley. So yeah, the political stuff was a great cover for the wholly subjective reasoning that we just didn't like the guy.

So, we now flash back to SummerSlam 2000, which for me is when the Triple H backlash kicked into high gear, ESPECIALLY since his relationship with Stephanie was being reported as more real than they were letting on on screen. Especially given that Angle at the time was a rookie himself, would you really blame WWF for putting a commodity they were trying to build at the time at risk for the benefit of a guy who wasn't even a year into his tenure on the main roster? Looking back at it, I'm not really sure I can.

If anything, I'd blame the braintrust in 2000 for booking the wrong angle. Yes, the love triangle was a good build, but they didn't pay it off correctly for various reasons. They would have been better served focusing Angle directly on The Rock, especially since the endgame was going to be Angle upending Rocky for the title anyway. Then, maybe you have Triple H continue his feud with Undertaker or Kane. Maybe he tangles with Rikishi or some other act that didn't have a whole lot of upward mobility. I don't know.

But what I do know is that a lot of the rage directed at Triple H at that time period might not have been justified. Granted, I'm still not happy at the way he refused to share the spotlight in 2002-04, and maybe he spent too much time as a Hulk Hogan when he was meant to be a Bret Hart all along. However, maybe we all got off on the wrong foot when it came to judging him outside the confines of whether we liked him or not.

The PWI 500: Does It Matter?

The PWI 500 for me used to be a huge deal 20 or so years ago. Back when I was really young and I was swaddled in the cloth of kayfabe, this kind of thing was so intriguing. As I grew "smarter"₁, the list diminished more and more in significance until the point where earlier this week, I used it mockingly in my slam piece on Kevin Kelly. So yeah, asking the question "Does the PWI 500 matter?" in regards to a guy like me seems like an easy question right off the bat. In terms of ranking the best wrestlers in the world via kayfabe, no, it doesn't matter to me, because as this sort of wrestling critic, I don't take the same things into consideration as PWI does (although interestingly enough, their 2010 #1 was the same as my 2010 Wrestler of the Year, so maybe we're not too far off from each other...).

I'm well aware that I'm not the target audience, but reading through Twitter the other day, I was reminded that maybe the kids and the "It's still real to me, dammit" crowd aren't the only people PWI aim their list to.

Yep, that's Chikara standout and TWB favorite Sugar Dunkerton, chest puffed out over his placement in the list. It was his reaction that made realize that hey, this isn't just some fantasy ranking of guys trying to use the same criteria for companies that use vastly different ways of making their guy a star. This is about recognizing guys for doing work on all levels of the world stage. This isn't the PWI 50 or 100. Five hundred, current wrestlers we're talking about here, is a hefty number for the climate right now. The entrants aren't just coming from the top level indie guys or people in WWE or Impact that may or may not give a shit if a magazine for "marks" rates them high. This is for the guys like Sugar D who work hard to get recognized, who compete in promotions that may or may not have a national reach, who bust their asses to entertain sometimes in front of 20 people and appreciate all the limelight that is shone upon them.

So yeah, maybe the PWI does have more of a purpose than to rate wrestlers for the kids at home. It's about recognizing the guys who may not be the household names yet, and in turn, giving the kids, and hell, even guys like me a reason to go to a local indie card with names unfamiliar otherwise. It's probably time we started to reconsider the PWI 500's place and maybe giving it a little more credence, just not for the reasons that the editors and publishers of it set out to make it for initially.

1 - In quotes because really, am I that smart when it comes to this, or better yet, is it better to be a "smart" wrestling fan?

The Queen Has Arrived: The Night Sara del Rey Became a Heroine among Heroes

Sara del Rey kicking Mike Quackenbush at Chikara's The Germans last year: Moments like this helped pave the way
for her crowning moment at Chikarasaurus Rex this past Sunday.

When Sara del Rey rolled up Claudio Castagnoli at the end of Chikarasaurus Rex weekend Sunday, the roar from the hundreds of fans who'd packed into the iconic indie wrestling mecca nearly tore the roof off the building. Compare that to the reaction she had gotten fewer than 24 hours prior, sound boos from a crowd that had some overlap, and you'd be surprised that it was the same wrestler. What happened between those two events that made the Queen of Wrestling the queen of the hearts and minds of Chikara faithful?

The easy answer would be to say that she went up against Claudio, the leader of the most hated group in the promotion, perhaps in its history. Wrestling against him in a Chikara ring would make anyone a favorite in the eyes of the crowd. However, I'm not sure that was wholly the case. There were some story elements going on here that really enhanced the atmosphere and really made del Rey's ascension that much more special.

First, del Rey has a legitimate case for the respect she feels she hasn't been shown by Claudio and the rest of the males in the BDK. This runs a lot deeper than "David vs. Goliath" or "Billie Jean King vs. Gerald Bobby Riggs" if you wanted to play battle of the sexes. If being a woman in a man's world was enough to make someone a babyface, then Sara and Daizee Haze would have gotten raucous cheers their first match as members of the BDK, a tag affair against the Osirian Portal. The cold truth is that del Rey has been a dominant force, holding her own against the men for the most part, imposing her will on a gender that is supposed to be superior to hers in every way when it comes to all things physical. Audiences, especially indie ones and especially indie ones that are as keen to storytelling as Chikara crowds are, pick up on this. It's not like Sara is a damsel in distress. She's the exact opposite, and that's why she commands respect. So when big, bad Claudio treats her like she's Kelly Kelly in a sea of Randy Ortons, then that's a major party foul. If there wasn't so much equity built up in Sara del Rey before this angle began, then there'd be no way that she'd command that kind of fan support for her to prove her "superiors" wrong.

And while I don't think that the whole "woman in a man's world" metric is the only or even the biggest reason, it certainly plays a part. Again, Kelly Kelly is the Divas Champion in WWE, and she's for the most part feeble. No one would buy her if she were to switch divisions and wrestle the men. Sadly, this is the archetype for the mainstream female wrestler, no matter how many Beth Phoenixes or Kharmas have come along. Even then, the trope is that a woman has to be of a certain build to compete, and often, that build is unflattering.

Only recently, and by recently I mean in the last 10 years if that, has the Joshi ethic of women of all shapes and sizes being asskickers caught on here in the American underground. It's obvious why del Rey would attract such a female fanbase, because hey, identification with a strong character is not solely a male trait. However, she's also getting props from male fans. This is not an accident. Again, Chikara attracts a much smarter, much more socially progressive crowd. That isn't to say that we've been itching to root for a woman, but if the right one comes along and kicks ass, you had better believe that she's going to get a massive amount of support.

Sara del Rey is the right woman.

The way that main event theater played out, it was no surprise that del Rey got the loudest reactions all weekend in that singular match. She was a true feel-good story without really pandering to the lowest common denominator. Yeah, Claudio overpowered her at times, but she more than held her own. It didn't matter if it wasn't "realistic" (as if 100% realism is even in the top 5 of things when it comes to a great story in pro wrestling); the crowd collectively bought it as if it were Mike Quackenbush the night before or Tommy Dreamer, Chris Hero or UltraMantis Black at events past. It was clear she was the underdog though, but at the same time, when she hit those three koppo kicks in succession, it worked. That's a testament to all parties involved.

I think that's what made the finish work as well as it did. Sure, the whole "pick up your beaten opponent at 2 only to get flash-pinned" is a tried-and-true story mechanism that works in all situations. It would only make sense that a chauvinistic man would do that to a defeated woman to prove a point. However, the fact that Claudio was doing it to del Rey? I don't know about the rest of the crowd, but in the moment, I felt insulted. It was because del Rey had proven herself worthy, not like some fluky über-underdog who gets the flash pin at the right time because of cockiness alone. There was a feeling that del Rey used guile and technique to counter Claudio's hubris, hubris that was unwarranted from get-go one because del Rey had earned the respect she demanded, at least with the crowd.

So that brings us back to the beginning of the post. del Rey rolled up Claudio for the win, and the place exploded. You now know the reason why the reaction was so magnified, and when I say that this was a true coronation of the new Queen of Chikara, it's not trite or cliched. It's real.

Whether del Rey goes on to win the Campeonato del Mundo from here is irrelevant. I think she'd be a terrific choice to win (and I've said so on two separate occasions now), but the real story here is that she's made it, at least in Chikara, she has. No other woman has really made this much of an impact in an indie fed that wasn't already dedicated to female wrestling excepting maybe Rachel Summerlyn and Portia Perez down in ACW, where men and women also wrestle each other on the reg. And she didn't do it by flaunting her tits or anything that would have made her rise cheap.

She earned it, every last bit of it. That's why this is so impressive, and that's another reason why Chikara is so much better than most other wrestling promotions out there.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Daniel Bryan Has Made It

Daniel Bryan! *clap clap clapclapclap*
Photo Credit: WWE.com

At this time last year, Bryan Danielson was gearing up to appear for EVOLVE and DGUSA. After getting fired from WWE for using Justin Roberts' apparel against him in a manner deemed to be too real for the company's sponsors. There were those who thought that it marked the end of an experiment that was doomed to fail from jump. How could the best wrestler in the world make it in a company that was further distancing itself from that word?

Little did they know that a month later, he'd return as Daniel Bryan to the company, a conquering hero, helping John Cena put down the group that Bryan had helped form, only kept from surviving due to a jealous Miz. The next year or so was spent building up the small guy from the indies as a guy who deserved to be on the big stage. It was eminently clear during the first half of his reign as United States Champion. Sure, he spent the second half of it and every moment between losing the strap to Sheamus and getting his feud-starting win over Cody Rhodes languishing a bit, but name any WWE wrestler who hasn't gotten lost in the shuffle in the last couple of years whose name isn't John Cena or Randy Orton. You really can't.

So it's with this moment that Bryan was pegged, was marked for stardom if you will. The cacophony of Michael Cole calling him a nerd was just that, background noise (and how soon do we all forget that it was Cole's antagonism that got Bryan over in the first place), because the fucking American Dragon held a briefcase in his hands, one that guaranteed him a World Heavyweight Championship opportunity, and one that we were reminded all night long, had never been cashed-in for a loss.

I'd like to think that the timing of the decision was just right. On a night when CM Punk was given his biggest stage to shine, a night when Christian was able to outsmart Orton, maybe it wasn't happenstance that Bryan was chosen as the wrestler to tackle the briefcase. Maybe the winds of change weren't just a device that Wade Barrett used to get himself over during NXT's first season. Maybe they really are blowing.

And you know what? That's a win not just for us nerds, but for everyone. People have attached themselves to Bryan in the past, and they will in the future. Still, he's one of us, he's our guy. And I can't help but feel that last night, he made it. I couldn't be any prouder.

Guest Blog: We Want CM Punk

The conquering hero
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Guest blog time, as Vince Morales, a TWB superfan and blogger in his own right (a link to his site can be found at the end in his signature), sent me an unsolicited report for last night's PPV. It's basically a study on the crowd, which I can pretty much guarantee Vince is an expert on, given he was there.

---

Last night the WWE took over Allstate Arena and delivered one of the greatest shows in company history. The booking was spot on, the matches were excellent and the wrestlers all brought their A-game. It was the perfect show and a lot of the credit for it is being given to the crowd. The crowd, they say, took things to another level with the atmosphere they created. I was a part of this crowd and I would agree with this wholeheartedly. I lost my voice at this show and that has never happened to me before. It was a great crowd, but I have to disagree when people refer to it as a heel crowd.

A heel crowd would imply that the crowd wanted only for the heels to win and the babyfaces to lose and for them to spill their blood all over the arena while they lost. While this may be true in the case of John Cena on the whole I would argue that it was less about babyfaces spilling their blood and more about new blood. The crowd was hungry for some new blood in the main event scene and tonight's event set the perfect scene for that to happen.

Think about it. The Money in the Bank matches determine the next #1 contender and normally, the next champion. The fans booed Rey Mysterio's climb to the top because they've seen it before. Rey Mysterio was in a World title match at Wrestlemania 22 in that very building. The fans didn't hate Rey, they just didn't want him to win. If Kane would have been given a tease climb in the Smackdown match it would have been met with the same reaction. We been there, we done that. The fans cheering Alberto Del Rio for winning wasn't because they loved Del Rio so much, it was because he was the right person to win the match and they knew it. The guy is ready to be a star and the crowd treated him like one. The "heel crowd" comments really start to show up when people talk about the two World title matches. Cena was the biggest heel on the show and Orton was up there too. The reasons why should seem obvious. To paraphrase Punk, Randy Orton (8 titles) and John Cena (10 titles) are the New York Yankees. They were both in main events of that Chicago Wrestlemania and they have been in the main events of nearly ever pay-per-view since. They've beaten everyone and lost to no one. The crowd was ready for something different and they were tired of rooting for the favorite. People haven't forgotten about Christian's two minute World title run or the fact that he's never really beaten Randy Orton and that makes him an underdog. The rules may have been against Randy Orton, but the odds certainly weren't. Christian was an underdog, the underdog plays. And Punk? Well...

Chicago is famously home to the Austin-Hart double turn match at Wrestlemania 13 and there are very few crowds in the United States who would have handled that transition as seamlessly as Chicago did on that night. Last night a similar thing happened. While the last few weeks of CM Punk promos have won over a large portion of the fanbase and built towards this, last night was it's culmination. On Punk's last night in the company he got his last chance to overcome the dynasty of the WWE that is John Cena in front of his hometown and take a big piece out of the system that has held him down for years, but the system (Vince McMahon) wasn't going to let him go easy. Punk wasn't just the underdog, he was the ultimate underdog. How could you not cheer for him? The second he walked through that curtain there was no turning back and Punk had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Last night was Punk's night to tell his story and it unfolded beautifully. To call a crowd heel for cheering for it simply doesn't pay attention to the facts.

So, no, last night's crowd wasn't a heel crowd. Last night was a crowd full of people who love wrestling and care about wrestling. They want it to be like it was last night, not like it has been. A lot of them (wrongly) blame John Cena for that. They want the Attitude era back, but that doesn't mean they want string bikinis and Mark Henry sleeping with transvestites. They want the attitude of the Attitude era back. They want Randy Orton to act like he acted after the match all the time, they want people to get Pillmanized, they want main events that matter and they want CM Punk.

Oh boy, do they ever want CM Punk.

When he's not obsessing about CHIKARA and the Second City Saints, Vince Morales writes the best Brewers blog in the world Miller Park Drunk.

Kings Reign Supreme: What I Hope for a Possible WWE Arrival for Claudio and Hero

Kings Reign Supreme!

If you believe the scuttlebutt, Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero, collectively known as The Kings of Wrestling, have an offer on the table for a WWE contract. The no-brainer answer would be to take it, but stranger things have happened. Hopefully, they will sign, because as much as I like watching them in the indies, I would rather see them every week on WWE TV and as a fan of theirs, I want to see them get paid as much money as they can get.

That being said, there's always that tricky question of "usage" that makes people take up the insane thought that they'd be "better off staying in ROH". Granted, there's almost nothing that would make me think staying in the indies is a better idea than going to WWE. However, I am a bit skeptical as to whether they'll get a good shake in terms of exposure. They could end up like CM Punk, exceed expectation and rule ass, they could be like Daniel Bryan (and admittedly, I don't think we've scratched the surface as to what we'll see from the former American Dragon) and get TV time but not get to the main event, or they could end up like Colt Cabana and be out of the company within a year. If they end up like Bryan, and again, Bryan's story in WWE is only beginning, then it's all good. However, there's one superstar whose career trajectory... well whose PROJECTED trajectory was exciting, fresh and totally game-changing for an entire division.

Yes, if the Kings make it to WWE, I would love to see them take on the Kharma role for the tag division.

Before she stepped away from WWE due to her pregnancy, Kharma was set to turn the Divas division on its head. She wasn't presented as your normal model-turned-wrestler who had silicone implants, and because of that, she got a genuine reaction. All signs pointed to a more "serious" women's wrestling division, one where Kharma would destroy the chaff and set up for a hero, be it Nattie Neidhart, Beth Phoenix or Kelly Kelly, to take her down and maybe establish that the Divas were deserving of more attention than, as Razor and I talked about last night, which of the males they were dating.

Of course, there's no stigma attached to the tag team division in terms of sexism, but it seriously is lacking of teams that could be considered legitimately over as a tandem. I mean, the only two that I think come close are Kane and Big Show and the former Champions of Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater. The former are a mongrel team of two fan-favorites-because-they've-been-around-since-the-dawn-of-time, and the latter got their overness more because of the groups they were associated with rather than a build as a team. Even then, with the dissolution of Corre, they even seem floundering. And at this point, neither team has the titles. In what may be the lulziest Tag Team Champion tandem in WWE history, Michael McGillicutty and David Otunga hold the Tag Pennies right now. Even though the Divas division had and still has its own problems, at least they have attention paid to them.

That's where the Kings should come in. Let them debut and destroy the Usos, Slater and Gabriel and then earn a title shot, where they win. Build them up as an unstoppable force whose teamwork is unmatched. Let them defeat Show and Kane, maybe not in short order, but convincingly enough. Give them mic time so they can develop their characters as more than just a win streak. Let them become the tag division so that when you build up a new set of challengers to them, be they an existing team like the Usos (who have potential but haven't had great opportunities to develop heat) or Slater and Gabriel, or another new team, either of guys who are on the roster or of a new team from FCW that's built up. That way, when the Kings lose the titles, it's a big deal. When they lose, they don't lose their heat because Hero and Claudio have been developing their characters through feuds and promos. It's all a matter of smart booking and attention.

Of course, this may very well be a pipe dream. Given that the failed TV writers have shown no desire to build a midcard or a tag division past a token "feud" that involves either bullshit parity decisions from week to week or a series of matches where it's a series of clean victories by one party while the crowd is expected to care when the result is never in question and there's no other factors making the losing party seeming like he's still got a story to tell. That being said, if they can try to revolutionize the Divas, why not tags?

That is, of course, if the Kings sign with WWE. There's still a chance that they might opt to stay with ROH, or that the scuttlebutt is just something that was sensationalized through being passed down the grapevine. Still, there's no doubt that Claudio and Hero deserve a chance to be in the top company in their field. Hopefully, the people potentially signing them know what they're getting.

Because it has the chance to be special.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

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!

CM Punk: Making You Wish You Had Never Stopped Watching Wrestling Since 2006

Neener neener
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Hey, you. Yeah, you, the guy over there complaining that wrestling hasn't been cool since Stone Cold and The Rock and that fat guy with the mask, y'know, Mike Foley or whatever his name was were around, pay attention. You keep saying you want a reason to watch, yet you've had a reason staring you right in the face, well, more than one reason in my estimation, but one really huge one, since at least the summer of 2009, maybe even earlier depending on how early you picked up on a guy with long black hair and a shitload of tattoos would be a major star. Then again, if you think that there hasn't been any good wrestlers since Rocky, then of course you weren't noticing CM Punk.

Well, in case your still-wrestling-fan friends haven't gushed about you about last night's epic promo to close the show, here's the 411. CM Punk has always been that good. He's always been that interesting, always been a great worker and a rousing promo with the rollicking wit and a keen sense of what to say, when to say it, and when to ignore what's been written for him by the failed TV writers.

And there's a decent chance that after July 17th, you'll have totally missed out on him altogether.

Then again, I can't totally blame you people (you people? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU PEOPLE?) for not picking up on Punk. I mean, one of the reasons why he's rumored to be possibly leaving (that's the beauty of this whole angle... we don't know what the real situation is, and anyone who purports to know is at worst a liar and at best a possessor of a vivid imagination) is that he wasn't happy with the time that he's been featured on the air. So while most WWE programming has featured guys that feed your negative stereotype of what wrestlers are now that the "cool" guys left or are old, maybe you missed out on Punk showing you what he could do. That's a shame. But there's still a chance.

See, from now until about July 17th, even if this is all totally legit and he is leaving for an indefinite amount of time, you still have a little less than a month to bask in the aura of the man who could save professional wrestling from itself if he's given just one chance. Yes, you still have two RAWs, maybe some appearances on three more Smackdowns and the obvious swan song at Money in the Bank. I'd say stick around for all that and see what you've been missing for the last five years on the WWE stage and even the last 10 years if you count his time in the indies. Better late than never, right?

And hell, during that time, pay attention to some of the other guys too. Sure, you may have been put off by Randy Orton, John Cena or whatever, but since you've been gone, there are a whole other cast of characters who might bid you to stay. Evan Bourne, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, Alberto del Rio, Sin Cara, Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, Alex Riley and especially that mouthy kid from the Real World, y'know, the one who wanted to be a wrestler so bad... yeah, The Miz, especially him... they're all worth a fresh look in my estimation. If you like them, then hey, wrestling's fun again. If not? Well, you only have to keep paying attention until Punk presumably leaves.

But then again, he might not leave. He might be yanking all our chains and sticking around, which means you'll luck out. The more morose among us, y'know, the kind of fans who are analogous to the die hard sports fans who get pissed off because their team does well and attracts all these bandwagon phonies aboard, may not think you "deserve" to (as if you need to be deserving to watch grown men pretend fight in their underwear... don't mind them), but hey, I say the more the merrier, especially if you read my blog (CHEAP PLUG). You'll have been witness to a truly historic moment in pro wrestling, one that you can say you were there for.

Yeah, Punk might have made you kick yourself that you weren't watching all this time, and honestly, you should be kicking yourself. You deprived yourself of watching a master at work. Then again, if he leaves, it's not all bad. WWE is slowly but surely getting its DVD library on Netflix, so you'll have ample opportunity to catch up.

Even if that means you only get to watch what we all enjoyed firsthand after the fact.

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!

Exciting Times for Indie Wrestlers

Is WWE about to let Kings reign supreme over them?

It almost looks like paying your dues in the indies for the better part of a decade is starting to pay off, doesn't it? I'm not just referring to Austin Aries' star turn last night on Impact, where he wrestled in a three way match, garnered the approval of the Impact Zone crowd₁ and trended on Twitter. That was huge, even if it's just Impact Wrestling, a company that I and many other people malign on a regular basis. The fact is that Aries was presumably seen by over a million people at one time... which is way more people than would have seen him even on the most widely-purchased ROH iPPV. That's huge, very huge, but it's not the only big news.

Scuttlebutt around Twitter, which has yet to be confirmed by either party publicly but hey, at least one of the people talking about it are close to them, had Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero working out for WWE before their TV tapings this week. Yes, the Kings of Wrestling have circumvented that mythical WWE age barrier enough to get a look by WWE scouts in a WWE ring before a televised WWE event. And regardless of the outcome, I am beyond excited for both of them. The fact that the WWE at least looked at them speaks volumes to how far they both have come in their careers, to the point where not even the WWE can deny them a look.

I honestly can't think of three more deserving wrestlers to make it to greener pastures than those three. Yes, Aries is only contracted through Destination X at this point, and we all know how rough it can be in Impact for a guy who doesn't have the WWE or a similar mainstream company on his resume (note, being in TNA before is NOT the same). And we don't know how the Kings' tryout went at all, and we probably won't until it's a month or so later and they're either on their way to Florida or are still working indie dates not under the guise of being a farewell tour. Still, there's hope, and where there's hope, well, it can't all be bad, right?

Hopefully, that hope is justified. Even if not, well, it's at least a start. If Impact and WWE recognize that it's not just the "younger" guys who deserve shots in the bigs, then maybe, just maybe, there's hope for the wrestling industry yet. Experience matters, and the sooner people realize that, the sooner the mainstream product will get better.

1 - I know it's not hard to do that, but hey, small victories.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

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.

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!

Hey, They Still Like Alex Riley!

You the man, A-Ry
Photo Credit: WWE.com

So, it looks like WWE thinks highly of Alex Riley. How do I know this? They didn't job him out to Miz this past week on RAW to close the book on his insolence and ping-pong him back to Smackdown (although that would be an entertaining storyline for some wrestler some day, keep switching brands until that becomes their gimmick, but I digress). Rather, they continued to build him up by having him wrangle Michael Cole and then chase Miz out of the arena this time. Looks like they're saving the bullshit parity immediate storyline reprisals for Superstars these days. I'm not complaining though.

I think that this faith in A-Ry is well-warranted. Since NXT Season 2 began, I thought he was the most polished of his class on the mic and had a great, brash charisma that could buy him a long career with the big company. The guy held his own on the mic when he was trading it with The Miz, who himself was polished and had become one of the best promos in the company. Big things for this guy, I thought, but I also guessed he'd bust out big as a heel on Smackdown. Imagine that, he's on the A-show as a babyface going up against his former mentor. It remains to be seen if that panache on the mic will work in larger bursts as a face, but for now, let's savor what we have.

Whether you live in the moment or worry about his future or anywhere in between, one thing is for certain. The WWE HAS to follow up on this in a way that makes Riley memorable. Does he have to pin Miz cleanly? I think it'd be nice, but no, as long as when he's done this mini-feud, he's a fixture in the midcard and taking up time on the big show rather than being delegated to the Superstars zone.

The WWE stumbled onto something special here, actually two things special. One is that they were able to create a rising star in Riley. Two, they found out that Miz really is a guy who makes people more over than they already were by associating with him. That's a huge, huge thing, I think. Still, whether they do or not, it's refreshing to see hope and faith in a guy get validated. The WWE fans agree with me. Here's hoping for the best for A-Ry.

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!

You're a Star, Alex Riley!

You go, A-Ry!
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Watching NXT Season 2, there were a few things that were certain. One of them undoubtedly was that Alex Riley could talk. If getting by with a voice and a knack for cutting a promo was one of the requisites for making it, then Riley had that in spades. If he even learned to be passable in the ring, he'd eventually become one of the biggest stars in the company. It was just a matter of when he'd get that star-making moment.

I'd say what happened Monday on RAW qualifies, right?

When Miz fired Riley from his "personal services" contract after several incidences of screwing up in his task of assuring Miz kept his WWE Championship, I thought it'd end with Riley getting his ass beaten and shipped off to FCW. I mean, that's what happens with these NXT alums not named Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett, Heath Slater or Justin Gabriel, right? What happened next was amazing. It's not that Riley fought back, it was how well it played out. He looked natural in the brawl with his former mentor, so natural that I'm convinced that he has the physical abilities to be a future star in WWE. The even more surprising thing was the crowd reaction. I don't know whether it was a fluke crowd, whether fans found something in him that made them want to cheer him, or whether it was just a reaction to how much they liked seeing Miz get his, but Riley got an honest-to-God pop when he popped Miz.

In a perfect world, that's where we'd all remember where A-Ry was made. I mean, it was the perfect storm, with everything coming together to create a memorable performance. Sadly, there have been a ton of those moments in WWE that have led to guys going nowhere. Couple that with the fact that neither RAW nor Smackdown have a fully-formed midcard that means anything, and the prospects for a follow-up aren't promising.

However, for a second, let's pretend the WWE has consistently followed up on big moments in the last few years instead of delivering on one out of five or so. If they can put a buzz behind Riley that lasts, I think it pays off. Right now, in this moment, Riley is already a star, and he's a guy that I personally want to see on my TV screen. If the moment is too fleeting then at least we have the moment now, and for that moment, Alex Riley was the brightest new star in WWE.

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!