WWE shakes things up

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

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The 2018 WWE Superstar Shakeup is in the books. I'm not going to analyze each move (which you can see here), but I will comment on a few things that stand out to me. Many online say it looks like SmackDown Live got the upper hand in the changes. I tend to agree with that, but believe the moves could jumpstart the careers of several Superstars on their respective shows.

Courtesy: WWE

I like that most tag teams and other factions are staying together. However, the split of Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable disappoints me. The duo was one of my favorites on the SmackDown Live roster. This, of course, could lead to a reuniting with Jason Jordan who is out with an injury. Let's face it, the tag team scene needs help, even with the Shakeup

I know Maria Kanellis just had a baby. I have no idea what the future holds for her. I do hope she returns to Raw with her husband Mike. Without her, the concept of Mike Kanellis doesn't make a whole lot of sense. 

Courtesy: WWE

Miz moving to SmackDown Live will be good as he and Daniel Bryan have natural chemistry. I would still like to see Miz with some sort of backup. The Miztourage is staying on Raw, which concerns me about the futures of Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas. I hope Maryse is able to rejoin her man on the blue brand down the road too.

NXT call-ups are great. Several new talents from that roster will be appearing on both Raw and SmackDown Live. But the reality is, sometimes these new faces and names get lost in the shuffle. Let's face it, what works in NXT doesn't always translate well on the main roster (see Bo Dallas). Or other talents will end up becoming future endeavored soon.

Charlotte stays on SmackDown Live

The biggest surprise to me was Charlotte Flair not going to Raw. I assumed with losing the SmackDown Live women's championship she'd move on. I'm curious to see how Carmella's title run is booked from here. 

Overall though I'm excited about the changes and fresh feuds. I'm also looking forward to the Greatest Royal Rumble later this month and upcoming BlackLash show which goes back to the dual-branded format.

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Surprise! Who Do You Want in the Rumble?

Adrian Neville as PAC
AAPW Main Event
Photo courtesy: Wilkey Photography

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

Before I saw that the WWE was holding a tournament with NXT stars to earn a spot in the 2013 Royal Rumble, I had already made my choice for what "surprise" entrant I wanted to see in the match.  Now that a tournament is in place, my surprise won't be much of a surprise, but I digress.  I really hope that it ends up being Adrian Neville.  I've blogged about him before and I really can't say enough great things about the guy.  The artist formerly known as PAC is definitely a future Superstar in the WWE, it's just a matter of time.  With his recent signing though, I'm not holding my breath that he'll win the tournament, but I'd love to see him get a little "prime time" action on the main roster.

So, Neville is my pick.  Chad says if it's someone on the current roster, he picks Christian, but with guys not on the roster he wants the Hurricane to return.  I polled the My 1-2-3 Cents Facebook friends to see who they wanted to see entry the Rumble this year and why.  Lots of great choices, thanks to all who participated.

Sam Banks:  "The Hurricane.  I would mark if I heard 'Stand Back' come over the speakers. Not a big name, but would be fun, and better than Carlito or Shelton."

Greg Mehocko:  "Charlie Haas BUT (wait for it) coming out in his old WWE schtick of impersonating a WWE Superstar.  Can you imagine the pop when Stone Cold's glass shatters before Haas comes out?  What do you mean I'm re-hashing an old angle?  I thought we were talking about the WWE.

Stone Cold! Stone Cold! Stone Cold!
Photo courtesy: WWE

Randy Livingston: "Glass shatter 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin runs to the ring, Stunners every SOB over the top rope, wins the Rumble, begins celebrating with a few beers.  Grabs a mic and calls out the Rock for some unfinished business.  CM Punk comes out pissed at Austin and tries to run him down.  Austin laughs in his face and of course kick, wham, Stunner."

Ken Johnson: "I think it would be fun to see someone like Vader back.  I always like watching all the wrestlers try to lift the big guys over the top ropes."

Adam Hackbarth: "John Morrison in a Street Fighter Vega gimmick."

J.M. Knight: "I would love to see some of the old WCW Luchadores come out.  The reaction would be priceless.  'Who are you?' chants."

Will Jones: "'Stone Cold' ET.  Because he's freakin' hilarious.

Jason DeBoer: "Bob 'Mr. Hall of Fame' Backlund.

Corey Ellet: "Brock Lesnar coming back would definitely be exciting! That's my best guess anyway.  And I'm also a huge 'Stone Cold' ET fan too, so that would be an acceptable choice."

Craig Cox: "Jason DeBoer."

"With a tear in my eye..."
Flair wins the 92 Rumble
Photo courtesy: WWE

Erik Stensland: "Ric Flair, because he is the greatest to ever step foot in the squared circle and he could school half the wrestlers on the roster even at the age of 63."

Rusty Smith: "Kassius Ohno.  It's time for Hero to graduate to either SmackDown! or Raw."

Weston White: "Shelton Benjamin or Gilberg."

Casey Hammond: "I think Undertaker will be back.  But 'Stone Cold' or Goldberg would be cool to see again."

Seasons Beatings: Santa Claas

Ziggler lays the smack down on Santa
WWE Raw
Photo courtesy: WWE

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

I'm modifying last year's blogs on Christmas themed storylines and gimmicks. This year instead of calling it 12 Days... (since I learned that the 12 Days of Christmas actually start on December 25) I'm calling it Seasons Beatings.

In the early days of Dolph Ziggler's gimmick he faced jolly old Saint Nick.  Actually it was Santa Claas.  No, that's not a typo.  It was Charlie Haas in a Santa suit.  This was the period when Haas was dressing up like WWE Superstars and Legends and adapting his name to fit the character.  Personally, I loved the gimmick, but will always remember Haas best for his work with Shelton Benjamin as the World's Greatest Tag Team.  I would still love to see them come back to the WWE for another run.

Anyway, as I mentioned, Ziggler was making a name for himself and working as the heel, he not only beat Santa in the match, he proceeded to beat him up afterwards, stripping Haas of his red suit and padding.  It's a great way to get heat, and who knew back then that we'd see Ziggler hanging with the big boys like John Cena, Edge, and Randy Orton.

Why There Isn't Much ROH Coverage on My 1-2-3 Cents

Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen
Photo courtesy: ROH

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

Kevin posted a question recently on the my123cents Facebook page asking what topics readers would be interested in seeing covered in future blogs. One response was more Ring of Honor coverage. I realize ROH is the defacto number three promotion in the United States and it gets very little mention on this blog. There are a few reasons for the lack of writings on the company.

When my123cents started, Kevin was the primary writer and focused mostly on WWE and old school memories and comparison. As Kevin has stated multiple times in his blogs and on his YouTube videos, he hasn’t followed the independent wrestling scene until recently. Most of his exposure to the Indies over the last decade was when I’d force him to watch a DVD. Having a family with kids involved in multiple events and an insane work schedule takes up the majority of his time. It’s been hard enough to get him to watch Impact much less a show he’d have to track down and watch.

When I started writing for my123cents, one of my primary goals was to try and bring more of a focus to the Indy scene. What that really meant was promoting Chikara as much as possible. By living in Los Angeles, I have Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and NWA: Hollywood that I should be paying more attention to but don’t. Due to a combination of long work hours and at times a hectic semi-social life, my writings have been more sporadic than I’d like which usually results in just writing on whatever is happening in WWE or TNA.

Briscoes vs. WGTT
Courtesy: Ring of Honor

Even if I did focus more on the independent scene, ROH would still most likely get very little attention. Simply put, I’m not much of an ROH fan. I have not bought an ROH DVD since 2006. I’ve been to four ROH shows. The only one that I truly enjoyed was the first show, which was the first show they did over Wrestlemania 22 weekend in Chicago. Even then, we left at the start of the main event. A main event that last 55 minutes and started at midnight, by the way. I have ordered a few of their Ippvs and usually got bored about half way through the show. The last show I ordered was “Boarder Wars” back in May. That was the first Ippv ran completely in-house and ended up that most of the people who ordered didn’t get to see it because of technical issues on the Sinclair Broadcasting side of operations.

One of my biggest complaints during the days when I would try to watch ROH was their production values. While their weekly television shows have improved audio, the pitch-black ringside lighting comes off very amateurish to me. Somebody may point out that that’s how wrestling was presented back in the day before Vince McMahon came along and made the show more of a spectacle. If that’s the vibe ROH is going for, that’s fine. It’s just not something that makes me want to watch the show.

Another factor to my low interest in ROH is during the early days of the promotion most of the top guys worked for TNA and IWA:MS as well as ROH. Instead of seeking out ROH DVDs, I could watch TNA’s weekly show or go to the monthly IWA:MS show in the area to see guys like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe and others. Without having a reason to actively seek out their show on a regular basis, I never really became a fan of the promotion.

While ROH’s history is filled with “classic” matches, my cynical opinion is ROH fans often consider any match that goes at least 30 minutes, has a minimum of 10 false finishes and has guys dropping each other on their heads is an automatic five star match. If the match happens to include a Japanese wrestler than automatically gets 4 stars before it even starts. This mindset of fans, along with constant “this is awesome,” “this is wrestling” chants are more factors that turn me off to ROH.

Richards & Steen
Courtesy: ROH

Over the past year or two, the face of ROH was Davey Richards. Davey is the poster boy for everything I hate about independent wrestling. With Davey as champion, even with an undercard that would put on an amazing show, I had near zero interest in watching ROH. I won’t get into details, but there was an incident last weekend in Iowa involving Davey and for the foreseeable future, I am boycotting any show that has Davey Richards. From what I’ve read, ROH isn’t using Davey at the present time, so this boycott may not apply to ROH.

Overall, ROH simply doesn’t appeal to me. I understand they’ve gone through some roster changes and the independent wrestling scene isn’t as top loaded with talent as it was in 2002-2003. I have no problem with watching guys who aren’t ready for primetime get their shot and watch them improve as they get more experienced. Heck, that’s basically how I’ve gotten to know and appreciate the entire Chikara roster. The problem is what I’ve seen out of ROH hasn’t captured my attention.

Maria & Mike Bennett
Courtesy: ROH

Now that I’m done burying ROH, I hope at least a little of what I’ve written explains why you don’t see much coverage of Ring of Honor on my123cents. Plus, I don’t get the weekly TV show in LA and don’t think about watching it online.

Also everything I’ve written could be applied to Dragon Gate USA/Evolve. Even the guys I do enjoy watching wrestling in ROH/DGUSA/Evolve don’t appeal to me in those environments so I’d prefer to watch them in other promotions.

I will try to include more thoughts about the Independent scene in the coming months. It would help if promotions sent me some DVDs to check out. With limited finances and a Chikara addiction to feed, as well as upcoming trips for Bound For Glory and Wrestlemania 29, my wrestling budget is pretty tight at the moment.

Thanks for reading and your continued support of my123cents. Remember to check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

Black History Month: Kofi Kingston

Kofi Kingston (WWE)

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

I recently wrote a blog about Shelton Benjamin being one of the most misused guys in the history of the WWE, and I think Kofi Kingston is another wrestler pretty high on that list.   I'll be the first to admit when Kofi first started showing up in vignettes walking the beaches of Jamaica and promising a big debut on ECW, I didn't care about the guy.  Even when he first started, I just didn't buy into the character.  But something happened, and I became a fan of his talent.

Kofi is another one of those guys in the WWE who has seemed to hit the glass ceiling.  He's definitely got the ability, but for whatever reason he seems to be lost in the shuffle.  I know that's hard to defend when he's held the Intercontinental title three times, the U.S. title twice, and two runs as a tag team champion with two different partners.  But again, like Shelton Benjamin, the big prize seems to not even be within Kofi's reach.

Kingston vs. Orton (WWE)

His feud with Randy Orton a few years ago should have gone differently.  It was a time to take Kingston to the next level.  Instead, he ended up on the losing end to a guy who was already over and wouldn't have lost any of his shine by putting Kofi over.  Had that happened back then, I don't think the title picture now would look as bleak as it does.  During the Orton feud, Batista, Edge, John Cena, Randy Orton, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, and Chris Jericho were all still at or near the top of the card.  There were plenty of top guys.  This was also a time when grooming the next generation would have been critical.  It was time to start passing the torch.  Because three and a half short years later Batista is gone.  Edge and HBK are retired, and Undertaker and Triple H are only wrestling a handful (if even that) times a year. 

I think part of the reason the company hasn't fully embraced Kofi is because like Shelton and even John Morrison, he's not the greatest on the mic.  Again, not a legit reason to hold someone back, but that's the only reason I can think of.  And right now is an interesting time in Kofi's career as he was such a big part of the tag team title scene with Evan Bourne, but now that Bourne has been suspended again, Air Boom's future is uncertain to say the least.  I've mentioned before I think Kofi could go it alone, but right now he seems in such limbo, it may be a good time for him to find a new partner and start over in the tag team ranks.  We all know the division could use the help.

One other note about Kofi, I think he got the move of the night for the 2012 Royal Rumble after walking on his hands.  He was facing elimination and saved himself in what may have been the most impressive way yet.  Only Morrison's Spiderman/Parkour leap last year comes close to that distinction in my opinion.

The fans love him (WWE)

Whatever happens with Kofi, I hope he sticks around.  I enjoy what he does in the ring, and he's one of my son's favorites.  He's a true superstar and from what I can tell a good role model too.  Hopefully in 2012 he'll find a way to break out of that mid card funk and bust through the glass ceiling and take a stop at the top of the heap.  Good luck to you, Kofi.

Black History Month: Shelton Benjamin

Shelton Benjamin (WWE)

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger

Shelton Benjamin may have been one of the fastest rising stars in the WWE in 2004, and in my opinion one of the most misused wrestlers in the history of the WWE.  I really had high hopes for him.  Benjamin had (has) a ton of potential.

Benjamin's early days in OVW saw him teaming up with fellow Minnesotan, Brock Lesnar, as the Minnesota Stretching Crew.  Together they held the OVW Southern  tag team titles three times.  Then in late 2002, Benjamin was called up to the WWE.

World's Greatest Tag Team

He arrived on the scene with Charlie Haas as the World's Greatest Tag Team.  I liked the gimmick.  They were following in the footsteps of Olympic hero Kurt Angle.  The trio worked well together.  Even after they separated from Kurt, the WGTT impressed me.  Then they got split in the draft, and Benjamin went to Monday Night Raw.  He had a couple of really good matches with Triple H, in which he won.  I thought this was the beginning of something good for him.  And it kinda was, he did capture the Intercontinental title three times and the U.S. title once.  And he and Charlie held the tag team gold twice.  But I always thought Shelton would go all the way and win the WWE or World heavyweight titles.

He certainly deserved the opportunity.  His in ring work speaks for itself.  Granted, he wasn't the best on the mic, but I still don't think that needs to be something that prevents a guy from reaching the top of the mountain.

Shelton and his "momma"

After peaking, Shelton got paired up with actress Thea Vidale.  She was his momma in the angle.  I guess the point was she was there to get her son back on track, and it helped somewhat, as he won another IC title during the angle.  I know they also attempted to reunited the WGTT, but that didn't last long either.  Both Benjamin and Haas got lost in the shuffle.  He also at some point went blond and became the Gold Standard, winning the U.S. title during that stint.  So while his WWE resume looks pretty good, I still feel like there was something (or someone) holding him back.

Shelton and Charlie have found success in Ring of Honor as the company's tag team champions.  Shelton still does work in other indies as well and does pretty well.  I'd personally like to see he and Haas return to the WWE and help jumpstart the tag team division there.  Then after some time have him back in the hunt of the WWE title.  But I have serious doubts that will ever happen.

Ring of Honor Sold

By Chad Smart

At their show in Chicago Ridge on May 21, Ring of Honor announced the Sinclair Broadcasting Company had bought the independent wrestling company.  From what I’ve read it appears ROH will begin having a weekly television show on Sinclair owned TV stations and possibly syndicated in areas where there are no Sinclair stations beginning in September. In addition, the TV show will be available online so fans who don’t get the show on TV in their area can still watch it. While I don’t think WWE or TNA should be shaking in their boots right now, it could be a move that potentially changes the landscape of wrestling if Sinclair is serious about making ROH succeed.

Ring of Honor recently celebrated their ninth anniversary. They had their first show a few months before TNA did their first pay per view. While TNA was first out of the gate with PPV and a weekly TV show, ROH’s game plan was a throwback to the old territory days.  ROH focused more on running a loop of towns and building an solid fan base.  While TNA started running before they learned to walk, ROH was content with learning to crawl before walking.

For the past two years, ROH had a weekly show on HDNET. While the show was usually praised by the fans who watched it, HDNET didn’t have the penetration needed to significantly improve ROH’s live events attendance or DVD sales. I believe the new deal with Sinclair, and possible syndication, will give ROH a bigger audience than HDNET offered. ROH will have one advantage over WWE and TNA in that potential viewers will not need cable or satellite packages to view the show. All Sinclair stations are available as over the air signals.

Photo from WrestlingMasters.co

As I said in the intro, I don’t think WWE or TNA should be worried about this deal right now, but they also shouldn’t take this announcement lightly.  Actually, I change that thought. WWE shouldn’t worry, but TNA and ROH should be concerned about what the outcome of this deal leads to down the line. Currently ROH’s roster is mainly guys who have been on the indy scene with the exception of Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, the current ROH tag team champions.  If Sinclair wants ROH to draw an audience, and have the money to spend, I can see them trying to land some bigger names.  Either guys who were recently in WWE or TNA wrestlers who have grown tired of playing second fiddle to the current ex-WWE flavor of the month.

On the flip side of the coin, if ROH’s business starts to pick up, I wouldn’t find it that surprising to see WWE throw some money at guys like the Kings of Wrestling, El Generico, Haas and Benjamin or other top talent in an attempt to knock ROH down a peg or two. They say history has a way of repeating itself.

Photo from: Rohwrestling.com

The one element I’m most curious to see play out over the next year is how, if at all, ROH’s product changes. I’ll admit, I’m not really an ROH fan. I haven’t bought an ROH DVD since 2006 and the last show I attended was in 2009 in Houston over Wrestlemania weekend. My biggest complaints with ROH is their production values and lack of variety.  Bad lighting and poor audio would make some DVDs a chore to sit through. While the matches featured good wrestling, they all felt the same. Lots of stiff hard hitting moves and guys kicking out of finisher after finisher made matches that could have been great seem like watching a match straight out of a video game. From reading reviews of shows online and on wrestling message boards it seems the average ROH fan considers any match that lasts at least 30 minutes and has 25 finishers a 5 star classic. To me, any time a guy kicks out of more than two finishers it exposes wrestling as being less than legit. It’s why I don’t rank the Undertaker/Shawn Michaels and Undertaker/Triple H matches from the last three Wrestlemanias as being great. They were nothing but paint by number Indy matches. I’m getting off topic.

When ROH was doing their HDNET shows, they would tape two months of shows in one weekend. I don’t know if that’s the plan with the Sinclair show or not. One change that appears to be in place is to not hold the tapings in the same location. The HDNET show, with the exception of one weekend of tapings, was taped at the old ECW Arena in Philadelphia. The first Sinclair taping is at the Field House in Chicago Ridge. I think taping in different venues is a good idea. It’ll make each show different and the same fans won’t show up for every taping.

Back to what I started to say before in regards to the ROH product, will they continue to keep the main focus on the athletic element or will they start to incorporate more typical wrestling storylines into the product?  Is Sinclair going to stick behind them for the long term or are they wanting a homerun after the first bat?

Photo from: Rohwrestling.com

Come September a lot of older wrestling fans will get to relieve some of the excitement of their youth. Twenty five years ago, there was WWF, NWA and AWA to choose from on a weekly basis. Fifteen years ago there was WWF, WCW and ECW.  Now there’s a choice of WWF, TNA or ROH. Are we on the cusp of another wrestling boom period? Only time will tell. 
 

Here’s a list of stations owned by Sinclair which should be airing the ROH weekly show.

WTTA Ch. 38 in Tampa

WUCW Ch. 23 in Minneapolis

WPMY Ch. 22 in Pittsburgh

WNUV Ch. 54 in Baltimore

either WLFL or WRDC in Raleigh

Either WUXP or WNAB in Nashville

WSTR Ch.64 in Cincinnati

Either WCGV or WVTV in Milwaukee

WMYA Ch. 40 in Asheville/Greenville/Spartanburg

KMYS Ch. 35 in San Antonio

Either WTTO, WABM or WDBB in Birmingham

WTVZ Ch. 33 in Norfolk

Either KVMY or KVCW in Las Vegas

KOCB Ch. 34 in Oklahoma City

WMYV Ch. 48 in Greensboro

WNYO Ch. 49 in Buffalo

WFGX Ch. 35 in Mobile

WDKA Ch. 49 in Cape Girardeau

WNYS Ch. 43 in Syracuse, NY

WMMP Ch. 36 in Charleston, SC

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