Wait, haven't we seen this before?

Hello all

So this week in WWE we have a big Pay per View: Night of Champions. This is a ppv where all of the championships in WWE are on the line. If you have been a long time reader of my blog, then you would know that I love ppvs like this. I love to see the championships being defended on a grand stage like a ppv (if you haven’t read it, 1st of all, where have you been, 2nd of all, read it).

There is another very important match that is happening this weekend. CM Punk will take on Triple H. This match is very important. It is personal for Triple H because Punk has been insulting Triple H the entire time he has been the WWE COO. And this is a big match for Punk, because if he wins, Triple H will resign as the COO.

Now, as I have been watching this situation for the past few months, I have noticed some things. When Punk’s music hits, he gets a huge pop. He comes out, and dogs out his boss. He says he is the best in the world, and tells people he has no problem beating them up. Does any of this sound familiar to anyone else? Now it could just be me, but it seems like the WWE is trying their best to recreate the most successful time, not only for them, but for the business as a whole, the Austin Era, or more specifically Austin vs. McMahon.

These two eras have a lot of similarities. They did not “officially” start when they won the championship. They started long before. They started back when both guys were working their way up to becoming the champion. Both started out with humble beginnings in WWE. Austin started out as the “Ringmaster”, a guy who Ted Dibiase brought in to the company to out wrestle everyone, but that character really did not fit Austin’s personality. When Punk first came in to the company, as everyone knows now, he had a very small part in John Cena’s WrestleMania 22 entrance, as one of the old time Chicago gangsters.

After being in the company for a little bit of time, both men received a chance to let their personalities show. In 1996 Dibiase left WWE for WCW, and Stone Cold was left to be his own man. Not too long after that Austin was a contestant in the King of the Ring (formally one of the big tournaments in WWE, but it has been relegated to just another RAW show). For those of you who do not know, Austin would go on to not only win King of the Ring, but he would coin the phrase that would make him famous. Austin 3:16. After that, Austin was allowed to get on the mic and tell the world “Austin 3:16 means I just whipped you’re a$@”! And the rest was history.

Punk was a baby face for the first 2 years of his career, until he cashed in his money in bank briefcase and beat Jeff Hardy for the World Heavyweight Championship. Since the fans have always been big supports of Hardy, they had to turn on Punk. And when they did, Punk began to turn on them, and in my eyes, he started to become a real star. That is when he was telling the world about his life as a straight edge champion. And he even went out and became the leader of the Straight Edge Society, a cult type group that he was able to use to get people to join his side as their savior. In both Austin, and Punk, we could see they had the skills on the mic.

Now leading up to their WWE championship was totally different. Since winning the championship Austin was running strong. He won the Intercontinental Championship 2 times, and the WWE tag team championship 2 times, and along with the King of the Ring, he won the Royal Rumble, guaranteeing him a WWE championship match. Now it was during Austin’s IC title reign that the rivalry between him and McMahon started. Until that point McMahon worked as the play by play guy for all WWE television and PPV events. Though he was the owner of the company, we were never made to believe that McMahon was in charge. That is, until Austin became the IC champion. During his 2nd reign, Austin hurt his neck in match with Owen Hart, and because he was not medically cleared to wrestle, he had to give up the belt. After he did, he gave McMahon, his boss, a stone cold stunner. This started the Austin - McMahon feud. So after Austin won the Rumble and a WWE title shot at WrestleMania, McMahon wanted nothing more than to keep the belt from Austin. McMahon even thought, if you can’t beat em join em, and tried to make Austin his corporate champion. But that did not work, and the 2 came together to have a match on Valentine’s Day 1999, at the St. Valentine’s Day massacre.

And of course leading up to Punk’s WWE title reign, he had that (what I think was slightly scripted) rant on RAW that got him “suspended”. He called out all of the WWE management, even Vince McMahon himself saying the company would not be good again, until Vince died; but he would just let his idiotic daughter and his stupid son in law run it into the ground. After winning the championship and leaving WWE for 2 weeks, Punk returned to find that Vince was relieved of his duties and Triple H was the new COO, and was in charge. But unlike McMahon, Triple H was not trying to control Punk; he was content to let Punk be his own man, and his own kind of champion. But after the mysterious appearance of Kevin Nash, Punk has made it a point to call out Triple H, and poke at him until, not too long ago, Triple H changed the match from CM Punk vs. Kevin Nash, to Punk vs. Triple H. And after last week’s RAW where Punk gave Triple H a sucker punch with the mic, it will all come to a head at the “Night of Champions” Pay per view.

I have been noticing the similarities ever since Punk’s “suspension”. Directly after that I noticed the WWE universe began to get behind Punk, because they felt his freedom of speech rights were violated. But I don’t think that at all. He was allowed to say what he felt; he just was not devoid of punishment for it. But ever since that event the people have been wildly behind Punk, just like Austin. I think in different ways. I am a huge Austin fan, and think that he captured people imagination, by being a rebel. The rebel we all wanted to be, by telling his boss, where to go, and what to do when you get there. In my eyes, Punk has cornered a different market. Punk claims he is the voice of the voiceless. Punk thinks he is the person who the fans want to see. Triple H calls him an internet hero, and I guess to some people he is, but in my eyes, I think he is nowhere near Austin. I think he is a good wrestler who is getting his time to shine, but he is no Austin.

AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLIIINNNNNNNEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A lost art

Hello all

One of this blog’s loyal followers sent me a message about last week’s blog. If you remember, last week I crowned John Cena “Mr. Pay per View”. This was because I have enjoyed (and think if you watch them, then you will too) many of Cena’s ppv matches, and think they have been very much worth the price of the ppv. This follower called me out and asked me, instead of highlighting Cena, or any of the new guys for the entire time I blog, at least once a week, I should blog about some old school wrestler. Well Mr. Proctor (Doc Proc) this blog is for you. Today I will blog about a lost art in pro wrestling. WWE has all but gone away from it. Even TNA hasn’t featured it like they used too. I am going to blog about my favorite tag team of all times: Strike Force.

Since a lot of you are new school wrestling fans, you probably think I am talking about the 2nd tier MMA organization, but no. Strike Force was a team back in WWE in the mid to late 90s. The team consisted of 2 guys I would hope you know. Two guys who were great singles wrestlers in their own right. These guys were Rick Martel and Tito Santana.
Martel started with the WWE in 1980. He formed a tag team with Tony Garera. They went on to win the WWE tag team titles late in 1980. The team defended those titles deep into 1980, until losing the titles to the Moondogs in March of 1981. After losing the belts, it took them more than 4 months to get those belts back. And they would keep them till October of that year, before losing the belts again. This team would never get the belts back, because Martel would move on to the AWA. In the AWA Martel would become a big singles star. In 1984 he would win the AWA World title. He would hold that belt for almost 2 years. He lost that belt and went back to the WWE. Back in WWE he formed another tag team, with Tom Zenk (some of you may remember him from his WCW days as the Z-man), which was called the Can-Am Connection. This team was mildly successful for about a year, till Zenk left for WCW. Martel was a singles wrestler would didn’t see many wins until he became one half of strike force.

Tito Santana also started his career in the WWE as a Tag team champion. In 1979 he and Ivan Putski won the titles in Madison Square Garden. This duo would keep the belts for six months before losing them to the Wild Samoans, in April of 1980. After this Santana was a singles competitor. He worked his way up the ranks for a few years. In 1983 he was engaged in a very lengthy feud with the Intercontinental Champion Don Muraco. These 2 would go back and forth for the title, until finally in February of ’84 Santana defeated Muraco for the I.C. title. The next feud Santana would have would be with Greg “The Hammer” Valentine. Valentine would beat Santana for the belt September of ’84. Santana and Valentine would fight back and forth for the title, with Santana finally winning it back in ’85. Santana would remain champion for 7 months before losing the belt to the late great Randy “Macho Man” Savage.

So now we have both guys who were great single competitors, and both former tag team champs, but in 1987 these two wrestlers went on to form my favorite tag team: Strike Force. They rose very quickly through the ranks. In October of ’87 they ended the 9 month title reign of the Hart Foundation.

The thing I loved about this team is that even though they were very successful as singles, they were a fantastic tag team. They wore the same trunks, the same boots, and came out to the same music. I know this may not seem like much, but there are not too many single superstars that would become a team like this. As you see from the WWE tag champs now, “Air Boom”, though they are the champs, they still seem like two singles competitors.

I would love to see more teams like this. That way they would seem like more of a team, and tag team wrestling would not seem like such a lost art.
AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLLIIIIINNNNNNEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Pay Per View

Hello all

I must say I never thought I would be writing a blog about this person. Mainly because I think a lot of other people would have done a lot of blogs about this person. This week I am going to do a blog, that I’m sure plenty of people will love, and plenty will hate. But I will admit by writing this blog, I think this person has gained a lot of respect from the wrestling world, and I’m sure from his peers as well. He has earned so much respect that I am going to rechristen him as “Mr. Pay per View”. The reason is that there have been a lot of his matches on pay per view that have been very much worth the price of admission, the cost of buying the ppv at home, or the cost of purchasing the dvd. The person I am talking about, the new “Mr. Pay Per View” is John Cena.
Now I know there are grown men out there, who may stop reading my blog because I am writing a blog about Cena. You may want to think again. There has been a number of pay per views that Cena has been in where he has made the entire event, because of his match.

Go back to his 1st title defense as WWE champion; at the “Judgment Day” ppv of 2005 it was the WrestleMania rematch between Cena and JBL. This was no ordinary match either. This was an “I Quit Match”. An “I Quit Match”, is exactly what it sounds like. You and your opponent try to beat the crap out of each other until one person says “I Quit”. This was Cena’s chance to show the world that he was tough enough to carry the company as the champion, so he had to have a heck of a match. And this match did not disappoint. I know this is not a part of the WWE’s new PG policy, but this was a bloody match. This match had everything, JBL whipping Cena with a belt, of course a broken table, and even JBL getting hit with the huge metal rods from the side of a semi-truck. It was a fantastic match.

The next match I want to bring to light is “One Night Stand” 2006. At this ppv, Cena was set to defend his WWE title against the newly reformed (though under the WWE umbrella) ECW, and their top wrestler, who won the “Money in the Bank” Ladder match from that year’s mania, Rob Van Dam. Cena was going into the most hostile environment he had ever been a part of, up to that point. At this point in his career, since he won his first WWE title at mania 21, he was champion for 13 months and a week, only losing the title for 3 weeks to Edge. He beat Triple H at mania 22, and people were starting to get tired of seeing Cena as the champion. And with the return and popularity of ECW and the ppv being in the original place where ECW shows were tapped, you could understand why this was not a very pro Cena crowd. The thing about this match that you would not believe is that Cena was the one who would carry this match. You would have thought that with RVD being the ECW staple, he would be the man who initiated all of the action, but Cena was the man who kept the action going from the opening bell. The strangest thing about this match was that even though it was an ECW match, there wasn’t much extreme stuff that happened in the match. Yes the ref got knocked out, and there was a run-in that decided the match, but still it was a pretty clean match outside of those things, and Cena was the reason for that.

The last match I am going to talk about today is another specialty match. This match is also special because of whom it was against. Cena’s 1st title reign was a memorable one. Cena beat JBL to win that title. JBL had the longest championship reign in over a decade up to that point. Cena’s 1st reign was 1 month less than JBL’s. During that 1st reign Cena defeated some of the greats, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, Christian. He even defeated 6 other WWE superstars in the Elimination Chamber match at “New Year’s Revolution in 2006.” Directly after the match Edge cashed in his “Money in the Bank” contract, and became the WWE champion, thus igniting one of the greatest rivalries the WWE has seen in the last part of the last decade. Cena and Edge would go back and forth over the WWE title, and their quest for the ultimate prize would conclude (at least for the WWE title) at the “Unforgiven” ppv, in Toronto, Canada. In Edge’s favorite match, a match to that point that he had never lost, a TLC (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs) match. This match had most everything you would want. Leading up to it, Edge had been doing everything in his power to get under Cena’s skin. He slapped Cena’s father, he threw Cena’s trademark spinner belt into a river, everything you could imagine. So when they got into the match, Cena was geared up, and ready to go. This match was back and forth. They used plenty of TLC. A lot chairs during the match, a ladder (because in essence, this is a ladder match), and plenty of tables set up at the end, that Cena sent Edge through before he grabbed the title, and was a champion for the 3rd time.

There have been plenty of pay per views, plenty of performers in those matches. I know Shawn Michaels was Mr. WrestleMania and rightful so. Shawn went out of his way to earn that moniker. But I believe that John Cena has earned the name of Mr. Pay per View. Cena has just given some of the greatest performances of anyone who could be in his position. These 3 matches are just a sample, not even the absolute best (although a few of them are). I know a lot of people don’t like Cena, but he is Mr. Pay Per View.

AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!