My 1-2-3 Cents : the Miz

On January 22, 2010; I received a golden opportunity. WWE was coming to Cape Girardeau for a house show and because it's in the same television market that I work in, I took a shot at getting an interview with a Superstar. This is the only time I've gotten a "yes" to an in-person interview. When I found out the Miz is who I'd be interviewing I was elated.

This was months before My 1-2-3 Cents was even a thought. So when I interviewed the former United States Champion it was with a news camera and the whole purpose was for our newscast. I archived the footage and held on to it and later that year I added the entire interview to the My 1-2-3 Cents YouTube channel.

The Miz was great. He was not like his cocky, pompous persona on WWE TV. We chatted before and after the interview and he even took the time to take a pic with me even though he had to rush off for another round of interviews on the local radio stations. I am still impressed with how cool he was and we chatted like we'd known each other for years.

It was that conversation that inspired me to make a change in my look. The very next time I went for a haircut I opted for a faux hawk. Some nine years later I'm still sporting the look, however with more gray in it than ever before.

WWE House Show 2018

Last summer I went to another house show, this time in Carbondale. I tried getting a Superstar interview again but this time fell short. But when I arrived at the SIU Arena I was blessed to find a front row ticket waiting for me. I stood up when the Miz (and all the Superstars) came out to wrestle. I was wearing my custom My 1-2-3 Cents suit by Shinesty. Miz actually looked at me and questioned what the heck I was wearing. I had a mini-mark out moment.

The Miz in 2018

I am still a big fan of the Miz and have enjoyed his evolution. He's overcome a lot of haters and proven a lot of fans wrong through the years. I'm proud of that and glad to see he's still a major player on SmackDown Live today.

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Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Stories from the front row

Daniel Bryan at WWE Carbondale

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

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WWE was recently in town and I was fortunate enough to get a front row ticket to the SummerSlam Heatwave Tour in Carbondale, Illinois. It was the first house show I've attended since 2009 and the very first time I was fortunate enough to sit up front. It's an experience I won't soon forget. Here are few observations from the night.

The suit and Snapchat filter
Thanks, Barry

I should begin by saying I debuted my new Shinesty suit. It's a custom-made My 1-2-3 Cents that I purchased for the sole purpose of getting the My 1-2-3 Cents brand out there. I also created a Snapchat filter for the evening. The stats aren't in on how many people used it, but I feel like both things got some attention for the brand which was the whole point. I ran into several great fans at the SIU Arena that night.

The Miz

That being said, when ring announcer Greg Hamilton made his way to his seat (which was right in front of us) he commented, "I almost wore that same suit." A little later my night was made by the Miz. After he made his way to the ring apron, he glanced down at me and mouthed "What the hell are you wearing?" I know he had no idea, but I actually met and interviewed the Miz back in 2010 before a house show in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I really hoped he would have come back down and taken a selfie with me. Instead though, when Daniel Bryan punched him at one point he spat and the front row got sprayed. I'm thankful my Shinesty suit is machine washable.

Remember, the name is My 1-2-3 Cents and if you're reading this for the first time, it comes from the expression, "that's my 2 cents." Because a referee counts to three, I added the three count to it to make it give it some wrestling flavor. And since I knew I'd never run a news site and mostly opinion based it seemed like the right call nearly eight years ago.

Perhaps a new duo, the 1-2-3 Cents Kids?

So I'm in my suit and someone working security actually asked me, "Did you used to be the 1-2-3 Kid?" I chuckled to myself because what a compliment that someone would see me and think that I was a one time WWE Superstar. I told him no and explained the suit was all part of my brand and the name of the podcast and blog.

It's a wrench

Other things I noticed from the front row, I don't know why, but I always thought there would be something more elaborate than a wrench used to ring the bell. I also didn't realize the ring announcer was tasked with that at house shows. I figured WWE would have created some sort of cool device for the timekeeper, but hey the wrench does an incredible job of making sure fans hear that bell.

After the victory

WWE does a great job making sure the crowd has fun. The New Day tossed pancakes into the crowd. One of the Usos threw his hat to fans. And several Superstars stopped after their match to sign autographs to the adoring youngsters in the front. Even old timers like me got to slap hands with Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston and Big E. All in all, I had an amazing time. I'm grateful for the opportunity and look forward to the next time WWE is in town. Check out more photos on the My 1-2-3 Cents Facebook page. And I invite anyone who attended the Carbondale show to join us for the next Stride Pro Wrestling event on Saturday, Aug. 4. Check the company out here.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

WWE shakes things up

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

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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Sunday, February 11, 2018

The Miz steps closer to awesomeness

The Miz
Courtesy: WWE

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

The Miz has taken another step to being the most awesome Intercontinental Champion of all time. Or at least the champ with the most combined days with the gold. As of this writing on Feb. 11, the Miz has surpassed The Magnificant Muraco and has taken the number two spot on the list. The Miz now has 543 days as IC champ under his belt. If he continues another 77 days, he'll take the top spot from Pedro Morales.

Me & The Miz in 2010

I've always enjoyed the Miz and I think it's great he's getting another run as IC champ. He's been pretty hot since beating Zack Ryder for the belt just after WrestleMania 32 nearly two years ago. Maryse coming back breathed new life into his career. He's proven himself time and time again that he's a main event player. It's been said before (I think on the Pro Wrestling Unscripted podcast) that if he were on SmackDown Live still, he'd be in the hunt for the WWE Championship. I could see the Miz getting another shot at the big belt once Brock Lesnar is out of the scene.

Muraco vs. Morales
Courtesy: WWE

The crazy thing about the new milestone for the Miz is he's held the championship eight times and hit this feat. But both Muraco and Morales are each two-time championship holders. I don't know if anyone has it broken down as to how many times the belt has been defended, I know the schedule for pro wrestlers has never been an easy one though.

Congrats to the Miz, continue being awesome.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

TLC: Totally (Il)logical Changes

By Chad Smart

@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

It’s been quite some time since I last submitted a blog here on the mighty My 1-2-3 Cents website. I think the last time I wrote something fans still liked Roman Reigns. Let's see if I can remember how to be snarky and cynical. Speaking of cynical, be sure to listen to my podcast Positive Cynicism. Available on the Jittery Monkey Podcasting Network and on iTunes. Back to the blog.

On Friday (10/20/2017) WWE announced that due to health reasons Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns were pulled from the TLC network special. WWE also announced AJ Styles would replace Bray in a match against “The Demon” Finn Balor while Kurt Angle would wrestle his first match in WWE in over ten years filling in for Roman Reigns in the Shield vs. The StrauKane Bar-Mizvah 5-3 TLC match. On paper these changes garner excitement. In reality, they show WWE’s lack of coherent storytelling and lazy booking of creating specific highlight clips rather than organic moments.

I guess I should explain why I’m being critical of these changes. WWE is not an independent promotion doing a spot show every month focusing more on putting on good matches than ongoing storylines. WWE has weekly episodic television. Whatever happens Sunday should play off of what has happened over the previous weeks and lead into what’s going to happen the next night on Monday Night Raw. So yes, putting AJ Styles and Kurt Angle into matches makes sense if Sunday’s show was a house show and WWE wanted to give fans suitable replacements to get their money’s worth. As a televised event, the changes make little to no sense.

Die-hard wrestling fans know AJ Styles and Prince Devitt (Finn Balor’s pre-WWE name) were members of the super popular (and IMO, super douchey) New Japan faction The Bullet Club. Seeing two former Club members wrestle each other has been a dream match since AJ Styles debuted in WWE at Royal Rumble 2016. For non-New Japan fans or fans who don’t know the history of AJ and Finn, what interest is there in seeing the two wrestle? I’m not taking anything from the talent of the two wrestlers as this match could have the potential to be the match of the night. Looking at the matchup from a logical (and longtime readers know Kevin and I often complain about the lack of logic in wrestling) standpoint, I fail to see a storyline reason for this match.

TLC is a RAW brand show. AJ Styles is a Smackdown superstar. So far in the 18-month redo of the brand split, WWE has done a pretty decent job of keeping the brands separate on non-co-branded shows. Why has Smackdown General Manager Daniel Bryan allowed to let AJ Styles wrestle for RAW? What storyline reason does AJ have to wrestle Finn? WWE is still promoting Finn’s alter ego, “The Demon” for this match. Why would “The Demon” come out to wrestle AJ? What will happen after Sunday when AJ goes back to Smackdown? What is the longterm, or since the next show is the co-branded Survivor Series, what is the short-term booking fallout here?

WWE could surprise fans and have Finn win with assistance from Bullet Club alumni Gallows and Anderson and we see the official formation of the Balor Club. While not an original idea, it would at least make a little bit of sense given the history of the four wrestlers. In reality, once Bray Wyatt was pulled off the show, Finn Balor should also have been pulled and a replacement match of Elias vs. Matt Hardy should have been added to the show.

In an even bigger head-scratcher, RAW General Manager Kurt Angle is in a match where he has no major issue, other than general annoyance, with anyone on the opposing team. General Managers wrestling isn’t anything new. Especially since most General Managers have been former wrestlers. However, their matches usually are the culmination of weeks of building verbal and physical altercations. Two weeks prior to TLC at Hell In A Cell, Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon fought Kevin Owens after Owens had insulted Shane and physically assaulted Shane’s dad, WWE Owner Vince McMahon.

Kurt Angle, on the other hand, has not had any major altercation with The Miz, the Bar (Sheamus and Cessaro), Braun Strowman or “The Original Demon” Kane. So why is Angle in the match? Also, since this is Angle’s first WWE match in a decade wouldn’t they want to have more than 48 hours to promote his return? I’m predicting something happens to Angle during the show and he is replaced by his “son” Jason Jordan in the match. Promote Angle to garner interest, insert Jordan to save Angle’s return for a bigger occasion.

Surprisingly, Kurt Angle’s return isn’t the most illogical aspect of this match. The main event of the TLC show is a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match that unlike every other TLC match has nothing hanging above the ring the competitors have to use a ladder to retrieve. It’s also a 5 on 3 match where all wrestlers fight at the same time negating any needs for tags. A 5 on 3 non-tagging, non-ladder tag team ladder match. It’s almost like having a falls count anywhere cage match…oh, wait.

Back to the involvement of Kurt Angle. Since Angle is the Raw GM, how does he show up Monday night on RAW and claim to be an impartial authority figure since he wasn’t forced into a much? If I were The Miz, I would have the WWE board of directors on speed dial and get an answer to this question.

While I may not think the storytelling of these two matches makes sense, the matches along with the rest of the show do look good on paper. I will be watching and will be curious to see where WWE goes next.

Don’t forget, a new episode of My 1-2-3 Cents the podcast drops every Monday. And new episodes of Positive Cyncism drop usually on Tuesdays when I can find someone to talk to me for an hour.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Save it for Survivor Series

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

I try not to judge WWE too harshly on the progression of storylines. As we've discussed before, pro wrestling is a marathon and not a sprint. With six hours of original content 52 weeks a year on top of two monthly special events, the flow must keep going. I understand all that. But in my 1-2-3 cents the main event set for TLC would be better served for next month's Survivor Series.

As it stands now; the Miz, Braun Strowman, Cesaro, Sheamus and Kane will face the three members of the Shield; Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. It's going to be contested in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match. I'm all for the Shield reunion. The original main event of those three against the Miz and the Bar was enough for me. When Braun was added, my thoughts turned to saving this for Survivor Series. Now that Kane is in the fold, I'd definitely wait.

Kane returns
Courtesy: WWE

I've always loved the traditional four on four or five on five elimination matches at Survivor Series. In my Tuesday morning booker role, I would have saved Kane to reemerge at TLC and then join The Shield against the four others. Or, Kane appears Monday night and helps Roman win and eliminates Braun from the TLC main event. Then Kane and Braun battle on the undercard and build up to the tag match at Survivor Series.

Again, I don't know where we're headed, so my thoughts are probably not going to make sense in the long-term plan. But that's what wrestling fans do. We book things the way we want them to be. However, I get stacking the deck against the Shield makes them stronger than ever. I just wish they would have saved this angle for November.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

The common link between Cena, The Miz, HBK and me

You can't see us...

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

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Quick incorrect answers to what John Cena, The Miz, Shawn Michaels and me (Kevin Hunsperger) all have in common: mic skills, wrestling ability and physique. The Miz and I did have the same haircut for a time (and we're both AWESOME). I got a faux hawk shortly after meeting him in 2010. But he's moved on from that look, while I hang on to it.

John Cena signing a shoe

Anyway, the common link between myself and these three amazing WWE Superstars is we're all left handed. August 13 is International Left Handers Day, so I did some investigating to find out which Superstars and Legends of the ring are southpaws. Only about ten percent of the population is left handed. I really hadn't noticed left handed wrestlers until I searched and found photos of them doing autographs to help put this blog together.

Lefties unite!

Other famous southpaws of the ring include William Regal, Terry Funk, Torrie Wilson, Matt Sydal (who is 10 years and two days younger than me), Torrie Wilson, Carlito, Austin Aries and Sandman. Looking back on Funk's matches, now I can see it too. His punches (which are some of the best in the business) are thrown from the left.

So other than recognizing International Left Handers Day, there's no real point to this point. Thanks for reading it and sorry if it wasted part of your Sunday.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

I didn't have a 'Ball' watching Raw

Big Baller Brand meets Miz TV

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

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There's plenty of buzz online as fans like myself play Tuesday morning booker when it comes to the previous night's Raw. The show this week was at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and early in the day, the announcement was made that the Ball family would be a part of the show. Admittedly, I'm not a sports fan and until I threw it in my Google machine (thanks, Conrad), I had no idea who these folks were.

I say that without meaning for it to sound disrespectful. Lonzo, LaVar and LaMelo were the guests on Miz TV. The segment made little sense to me, but as I said I don't follow sports and fully understand WWE likes to have celebrities on the show that will get mainstream coverage. The Balls are obviously well known in LA so I'm not hating on the celebrity guest appearance.

LaVar vs. The Miz???
Courtesy: WWE

During the course of the segment, LaVar went a little crazy, taking off his shirt and running around the ring. I think it was Corey Graves who said it, the segment went off the rails. He was referencing Dean Ambrose's appearance, but in my 1-2-3 cents, it was also an acknowledgment of the youngest Ball who repeated a racial slur that made air.

The Ball Family reacts
Courtesy: WWE

I've been trying to keep things more positive on this blog, so I apologize for the negativity attached to this post. I just thought the Miz TV segment was a huge waste of time and didn't do anything to advance a storyline on Raw. Honestly, (and again I'm playing Tuesday morning booker), I would have just had Lonzo or LaVar serve as a special guest referee for the night. Let them come out, get a pop and perform a useful function. However, as stated in the open, the segment captured plenty of attention on social media and in some mainstream media circles, so in that regard, it's mission accomplished.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Extreme Rules predictions

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

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Extreme Rules is set for Sunday night. For the last month or so my viewing of Raw has been minimal. I told the story already about the bunny chewing the cord to our DirectTV box. Once the company sent a new one, I was ready to go. But a storm moved through on Memorial Day night, knocking out the signal to our satellite. I did get to see part of the show and I've of course kept up online with what's happening. So here are some quick thoughts...

Rich Swann and Sasha Banks will beat Noam Dar and Alicia Fox. I have no basis on this call, other than I don't usually bet against Sasha Banks.

I want Neville to retain the Cruiserweight Championship against Austin Aries in a submission match. But my gut tells me they're going to put the title on A Double. I don't have a problem with that, as I'm sure this will be another outstanding match between these two.

Alexa Bliss will retain the Raw Women's Championship against Bayley. These two are battling it out in a kendo stick on a pole match. I'm all in for Alexa and switching the title again this quick is not a good thing.

The Hardy Boys will lose the tag team titles to Cesaro and Sheamus. I love both of these tag teams, with Cesaro and Sheamus really coming into their own. Their evolution has been impressive through the last several months. Many believe (myself included) if the Hardys lose in the cage match, this will set them off to begin singles careers. I haven't read up on the lawsuit over the Broken gimmick, so I don't know what will be next for the duo.

I'm split on the Intercontinental Championship match. Until Elias Samson got involved in the angle I figured the Miz would beat Dean Ambrose and regain the gold. Now I'm not so sure. Of course, I thought Baron Corbin was going to win the title at WrestleMania, so my ability to successfully call IC title matches has been limited.

When it comes to the five way to determine the number on contender to the Universal Championship, it's literally anyone's match to win. I've read that each of these men will eventually face Brock Lesnar for the championship up until WrestleMania, it just depends on what order they want to go and how dominant Lesnar will remain. To me, the WrestleMania matchup should be Samoa Joe and Lesnar. But WWE thinking will be a rematch between Lesnar and Roman Reigns. I like Finn Balor a lot, but I don't see him being the guy to beat Lesnar for the belt, so I'm going to go with him to win this match at Extreme Rules and be fed to the Beast at Great Balls of Fire.

What are your picks for Extreme Rules? Weigh in here or on the My 1-2-3 Cents social media pages.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

3 Stars who need to come back to WWE

Morrison, Rhodes, Hogan
Courtesy: WWE

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter