Cena Fired...Again?!?

Photo from WWE.com

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

I'm proud to say that I held to my word and didn't read any Raw spoilers last week, leading up to the July 4th edition of the show.  I must say, I actually think the way they're going with the storyline makes sense.  At least it does to me.

I understand Vince McMahon not wanting a champion to leave the WWE and possibly join another wrestling company.  He mentioned it happened before.  Instead of just mentioning it though, I'd show the clip of Medusa dumping the WWF Women's title in the garbage on Nitro live.  It was a stunning moment, and since it happened 15 years ago, I would suspect many in the WWE Universe were either not alive yet or too young to remember it happening.  That would have added some validity to the storyline.

I also like how Cena continues to stand up for what he thinks right.  My opinion, that's an example of what a role model should be.  He's not eating vitamins, saying his prayers, yada yada yada.  He's being a man of honor and principle.  Say what you will about the rest of his character, but I admire this development.

This angle is the first in a long time that McMahon has been involved with where it makes sense.  Punk specifically called the family out last week, and the chairman needed to address that.  His basis for the suspension made sense too.  I'm wondering if this will lead to Punk becoming a modern day Stone Cold Steve Austin, with Cena playing the role of Bret Hart circa 1997.  Both were the wholesome babyfaces who lost fans to the brash, take no prisoners heel.

Photo from WWE.com

Now for the criticism.  It's been less than a year that we had the "John Cena gets fired" angle.  And while the champ hasn't officially been canned yet, the mere idea of it happening again less than 12 months later is annoying.  It's repetitive and unoriginal.  Although in this angle it makes more sense than when Cena lost to Wade Barrett.

But Punk HAS to win now.  Otherwise the last few weeks make no sense.  (I know, some of you are asking when has that stopped the WWE before.) Maybe it's Cena, not Punk who will get a break.  Really, both men deserve some time off.  Cena has been going non stop for quite some time though and does a lot of work out of the ring.

My other question, what happens to Alberto Del Rio now?  Does he stay in the Money in the Bank ladder match?  It was my understanding that when he won the 3 way Monday night, he was the new number one contender to replace Punk.  I hope they don't turn this into a 3 way match at MITB.  I also hope they don't blow a Cena-Del Rio match on Raw.

I can honestly say though, I don't think I've looked this forward to a WWE title match in quite some time.  Again, I know some will criticize that statement, but I'm being serious.


Other thoughts from Raw:

• I'm disappointed the Miz lost to Alex Riley again.  I'm starting to think Miz's push was only done to build A-Ri into a star.  Seriously, when's the last time the Miz had his hand raised?  He's taken a lot of beatings, even when he was WWE champion.  Riley looks good.  He's growing on me.  Feel like the Miz might need some retooling or a change of scenery.  

• I was happy to see the tag team champions wrestle in a tag team match. I'm even more excited that Zack Ryder made a brief appearance and is apparently going to find himself a partner and challenge David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty for the tag team titles.  It's about time!

• Why can't the writers work Beth Phoenix and Natalya Neidhart into any of the current Diva story lines?  And boy, I wish Kharma was still around.

• Has there EVER been a segment in wrestling that involved cake where someone has left the area without the cake on them?

Photo from: WWE.com

• I think Sgt. Slaughter is in better shape today than he was 20 years ago when he was WWF champion.  Just sayin'... Speaking of which, I actually enjoyed the little verbal sparring between he and Jack Swagger.  Wish they'd do more with the All American, American.

So what did you think of Raw?  Please share your opinions here or on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The Slam Heard 'Round the World

Lex slams Yoko, USA! USA!

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

Photos in this post come from WWE.


It's hard to believe, but it was 18 years ago today that Lex Luger body slammed 550 pound WWF heavyweight champion Yokozuna.  It was known as the 'the slam heard 'round the world.'  Up until that point, the Sumo superstar (actually Samonan, but he was Japanese for the gimmick) hadn't been off his feet.  I think Hulk Hogan had attempted to slam Yokozuna at the 1993 King of the Ring, but failed to do it.

Yoko and Mr. Fuji were on an anti-America tirade and decided to humiliate America's top athletes and WWF superstars on the USS Intrepid.  Here's the YouTube video I found from that day.  I forgot that Macho Man Randy Savage was in ring host that day.  He even attempted to slam the champ but failed.  In fact, everyone did.  NFL players attempted.  NHL players tried.  Even WWF strongmen like Rick Steiner and Crush.  Crush did get Yokozuna off his feet, but couldn't complete the task.

Just as it looked to all be over and America disgraced on her birthday, a helicopter landed carrying a patriotic looking Lex Luger.  Until that point, his WWF career consisted of him playing the ultra egoistical "Narcissist."  Luger was able to get the big man up and off his feet and won the challenge.  And a new pick up truck.  I guess he traded in that truck for the Lex Express bus.

Done!

The slam was of course designed to turn Luger face and become the next challenger for the WWF title.  Hulk Hogan had just left the company, this time for good.  Bret Hart for some reason was put out to pasture.  I think Vince McMahon was trying to recapture Hulkamania, and who better for that than Lex Luger.  He had the look, but lacked the charisma that Hogan had.  He embarked on a tour of the United States in his big patriotic bus that culminated with a main event against Yokozuna at SummerSlam 93.  Luger won...by countount.  As we know, titles don't change hands on a countout.

Luger tried to stay the top contender for the months that followed, including co winning the Royal Rumble with Hart.  Both men got a shot at the champ, with Luger winning his match by disqualification.  Again, the title doesn't change hands on a DQ.  So Luger was seemingly out of the hunt.  In fact, I'd say his character jumped shark that night and he slid to more of a mid card status, feuding with Tatanka and members of Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation before teaming up with Davey Boy Smith as the Allied Powers.  Then Luger would leave the WWF for WCW, dropping his patriotic gimmick at the door.

Mirror, mirror...

Back to the original face turn.  Personally, I always liked the heel Lex Luger much better.  The Narcissist gimmick was perfect for him.  He played it off well.  I think the WWF made a mistake though by not pairing him with a manager.  These were the days of transition in the wrestling world, and the manager was starting to do the way of the dodo bird.  Since Bobby Heenan originally introduced WWF fans to Luger, it would have been great for him to be his manager.  But Heenan was solely working as an announcer at that time.

Another idea I had for Lex was this was about the same time that the Steiner brothers were coming in from WCW.  Ric Flair was leaving the WWF and heading back to WCW.  It would have been great if Vince could have resigned Flair, and created some sort of invasion angle back then.  You had two former WCW world champions and the tag team champs, it would have been groundbreaking way back then.  Unfortunately no one had the idea.  Besides, Vince has almost always undermined talent he's brought in and not developed himself.

I wonder if Luger might have won the WWF title had they created some other type of gimmick for him.  Maybe kept him heel and challenge Bret Hart as the Narcissist.   I think Luger's WWF run was mostly a fail when you look at the big picture, but I don't totally blame him.  Vince and company wanted a new version of Hulk Hogan instead of letting Lex be Lex.

Your thoughts?  Post them here... or on Facebook... Twitter... YouTube.  We would love to hear from  you.

Wasting Wade

Wade Barrett with Chad & Drew McIntyre at FCW 2008

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

Thirteen months ago I think most fans would agree that Wade Barrett was the hottest prospect in the WWE.  He was the leader of the renegade group The Nexus.  The 8 members attacked John Cena, CM Punk, Luke Gallows, Justin Roberts, and Jerry Lawler on the June 1, 2010 edition of Monday Night Raw.

The attack was the talk of the wrestling world for the weeks that followed.  This group was made to look like unstoppable.  They were ruthless and attacked other wrestlers and Hall of Famers in the months that followed.

Photo courtesy: WWE

Barrett was put in charge of the group.  It was a role that made sense at the time.  He had just been crowned the winner of the first season of NXT.  He had a good look.  He was decent on the mic, and he could wrestle.  Then for some ridiculous reason they fed Wade Barrett and the rest of the Nexus to John Cena.  One by one, Super Cena made all these future superstars look like chumps.

The group teased several breakups, and by the start of 2011, they had fractured and CM Punk took the reigns of Nexus.  Barrett moved to SmackDown! with Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel.  The trio was joined by Ezekiel Jackson to create the Corre.  I think they chose that name because it rhymes with bore.

They got booked into some crappy angles, including a mini feud with Apple.  Ugh.  During this time, Barrett did win the Intercontinental championship.  But for the most part it was a pretty lackluster run.  He didn't defend the title at Wrestlemania.  Instead, he and the Corre were booked in a 92 second match against Kane, Big Show, Kofi Kingston, and Santino Marella.  By the way, Snooki's match went longer than that.  Just sayin'...

In the few months that have passed, Barrett has now dropped the IC title to former Corre mate Ezkeil Jackson.  And most recently, he jobbed to Kane on SmackDown!  There's nothing wrong with losing to Kane, but when you've got a guy who is climbing up through the ranks, I think a guy who's been around for 14 years should put him over.  That's a big problem in the WWE right now.  They've lost top talents like Undertaker, Triple H, Batista, Shawn Michaels, and Chris Jericho, yet they've still not pushed anyone into those spots.  We've still got Cena and Randy Orton as the companies top two.  But after that, who is there?

When I first started this blog in September 2010, I wrote about ending the Undertaker's streak and named Wade Barrett as the man to do it.  I have since change my opinion to say that I don't think the streak should ever end, and I definitely don't think it should be Barrett to do it.  This is no fault to Barrett.  He just seems to be lost in the shuffle.  I had hoped the IC title run would have been a bit more dominate and would have propelled him to the next level.

But what I think happened with him and all the original Nexus members is they got caught up in that early feud with John Cena.  That should have come further down the road.  Besides attacking and beating up guys, they weren't put over anyone in the ring.  It hurt their credibility.  It's still having an effect on Wade Barrett, the most gifted one of the group.

Wade & Drew in 2008 at FCW

Now that it appears he's through with the Corre, I hope they put a focus back on him as a singles competitor.  Quit trying to make him the leader of a group.  Instead, pair him  up with a manager.  In the past I've suggested William Regal, and I stand by that idea.  Push him as the tough guy he really is.  Or there's the option of killing two birds with one stone, and give him a tag team partner.  Actually, kill 3 birds and team him up again with Drew McIntyre. You give two guys who have a ton of potential something to do and help to revive the tag team situation.

I still think there's hope for Wade, but the company needs to get behind him, and he needs to run with the ball if and when they finally hand it to him.  Not that I think he's reading this, but Wade you can do it!

To everyone else, thanks for reading.  Check out the Facebook page.  Follow our tweets on Twitter.  And check out the amazingly awesome videos on YouTube.  While you're there, hit "Subscribe"

Constant Title Defenses Dilute the Title

By Chad Smart

@ChadSmart on Twitter

I had another topic I was planning on writing about until I read Kevin’s post about non-title matches being pointless. (editors note, I didn't say they were pointless, just that there have been too many lately KH) Kevin and I usually don’t discuss what we’re going to write about because most of the time it isn’t until we sit down to write that we even know what we’re going to write about. Had Kevin told me what he was going to write about, I would have told him how he was wrong. But he didn’t tell me so now I get to do the first in what will probably not be an ongoing feature called, point – counterpoint.

I like the idea of non-title matches instead of the title always be on the line. According to the wrestling rulebook, section 4 paragraph 5 subsection B, “a champion shall defend the title at least once per 30 days.” I have long wanted to see a heel win a championship and refuse to defend it other than once every 30 days. Said champion would not grant immediate rematches the following night after a pay per view or even on a pay per view if the title was defended on the weekly show. In my opinion this would make the title matches more meaningful.

If every match is a title defense then the already most likely predictable outcome is even more predictable except in the rare occasions where a non-ready for the title wrestler gets the shocking victory only to more than likely loose the title without gaining anything in the coming weeks. Champions should not be defending the title against guys who aren’t deserving of a title shot. I don’t know how well it would work if champions only worked against low mid-card guys just as a way to get the champions on the show to make the fans happy. Would the fans cheer John Cena less if he were facing Curt Hawkins instead of CM Punk on non-pay per view show?  Or do the fans only care to see Cena must out his catchphrases and “5 moves of doom” without regard for who is across from him in the ring?

Non-title matches can also serve as a way to elevate the next challenger. Say Cena has a non-title match against Curt Hawkins and Hawkins scores the upset by beating Cena; now Hawkins has a legitimate excuse for wanting a title shot. When they have the eventual title match, the fans will now have reason to believe Hawkins could walk out as champion because he’s beaten the champ already so why can’t he do it again? Of course this relies on the writers to keep Hawkins looking strong and fans to ignore the last 7 years of John Cena title matches, but I digress.

Anyone who’s been reading the my123cents for at least the past couple months knows I’m a Chikara mark. In the Chikara universe if a tag team wants to challenge for the Campeonatos de Parejas they must first accumulate three points. A point is awarded for every victory. If a team has one or two or three points then loses a match before getting a title shot the team loses all points and has to start over on their quest for three points. By having to achieve a goal, fans become emotionally attached to a team’s aspirations of achieving three points. Stories can also be told if a team can never reach three points. Again, there has to be some forethought put into the matches to know where the outcomes are leading. Booking on the fly doesn’t work in this scenario.

To conclude, non-title matches can be beneficial to creating new stars and feuds. It all comes down to the writing of the story being told. Hopefully by incorporating this philosophy into the current wrestling product we the fans won’t have to sit through 20 title matches and rematches between the same two guys. (I’m looking at you Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston.)

Now that you’ve read this where are you going to go next on the World Wide Web? Why not head over to the my123cents Facebook, Twitter or, YouTube pages. They’re quite entertaining and may even have pizza. Most likely they won’t, but you’ll never know unless you check them out. 

Non Title, Not Necessary

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

I watched SmackDown! live for the most part tonight.  It's the first time in weeks that I've actually watched the show.  And overall I would say it was a pretty good night.  It seemed fresher to me than what we've been watching on Raw for the last few weeks.

The matches on SmackDown! were really good.  Christian and Sin Cara, and Ted DiBiase and Daniel Bryan were particularly good.  Kane beating Wade Barrett was disappointing.  Not sure what's going on with his future.  More on that in a future blog.

I want to focus this writing on the Cody Rhodes-Ezkeil Jackson match.  The two met, and honestly I fast forwarded through the intros and missed that this was a non-title affair.  So when I saw Cody get the pin, I was happy thinking we had a new Intercontinental champion.  Then I watched his hand get raised, but not the title.  So, Zeke will keep the belt.

Photo courtesy: WWE.com

It seems lately there have been a lot of non title matches on WWE programming.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but none of the matches on the Raw Roulette show Monday were title matches.  R-Truth beat WWE champion John Cena in a tables match, Kofi Kingston pinned U.S. champ Dolph Ziggler, and Divas champion Kelly Kelly beat one of the Bellas (but it was billed as a non-title match)

I think non title matches are okay from time to time, but I think it makes the champion look weak.  Right now in particular, I think the WWE needs to do more to build up the champions they have (not John Cena and Randy Orton obviously)  While I like the fact that Cody got the win over Zeke, I would have rather he got the belt too.  Why not have Jackson retain and actually make your champion look strong?  It's disappointing.

Courtesy: WWE.com

Not only do I not understand the lack of title matches, I don't get why we haven't seen the tag team titles defended on Raw or SmackDown!  It's really disappointing and further evidence that the WWE doesn't really care about the tag team titles.  They weren't on SD at all, and Monday night they were used to put Shawn Michaels over, who was on promoting a hunting show.  WTF? We've ranted on that plenty of times before in blog and video form, so I won't bore you again with that sermon.

As always, thanks for reading.  Please check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Fantasy Friday: Michaels vs. Steamboat

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

(Photos in this post are from WWE)

For years, I've thought about a match between Shawn Michaels and Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat.  Both men are on my Top 5 list of All Time Greats.  (Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, and Bret Hart are also on that list).  And personally, I think the two could have put on one helluva show back in the day.  I actually believe they could give a decent match today.

So let's break it down.  Last week when I compared Austin vs. Hogan, I used a 3 year time period to gage how they'd match up against each other.  This was a very challenging thing to do with both Michaels and Steamboat.  But to stay consistent with this feature, I'm going to stick to my 3 year rule.

For Shawn I couldn't decide what was his best time in the ring.  So I asked for the help of My 1-2-3 Cents fans on Facebook.  I got some good suggestions, but I decided to stick with my gut of 1993-1996.  I chose those three years, not just for his in ring work, but I thought the whole Heartbreak Kid character really started to shine and develop in the mid 90's.  It was a dismal time for the WWF then, and Shawn Michaels really shined in the ring and on the mic.

Picking Steamboat's best 3 years was a challenge too.  He had some great moments through his career, but I went with 1986-1989.  He was in both the WWF and NWA at during this period and really peaked as a wrestler in my estimation.  Some will argue his matches with Flair in the early 80's were the best, but this was before my time, so I'm going with what I know.

Let's do the comparison:

Shawn Michaels (1993-1996):


Title History & Key Wins (according to WWE.com):


*Beat Marty Jannetty to capture his second Intercontinental title (6/6/93)

*Teamed with Diesel to beat the Headshrinkers for the WWF tag team titles (8/28/94)

*Won the 1995 Royal Rumble

*Beat Jeff Jarrett for his third IC title run (7/23/95)

*Teamed with Diesel to beat Owen Hart & Yokozuna for the WWF tag team titles (9/24/95 one day run)

*Won the 1996 Royal Rumble

*Beat Bret Hart for his first WWF title (3/31/96)

*Defended the WWF by pinning Diesel at In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies (4/28/96)

*Pinned Davey Boy Smith at the King of the Ring PPV (6/23/96)

*Defended the WWF title against Vader at SummerSlam (8/18/96)

*Beat Mankind by disqualification at In Your House: Mind Games (9/22/96)

Another defining moment for HBK during this period is his ladder match against Razor Ramon.  The two put on a great performance, and many say it stole the show at Wrestlemania X.  I think it's fair to say this was the official start of being able to call Shawn "Mr. Wrestlemania."

Admittedly shortly after 1996, things started going down hill for Shawn.  Depending on who you believe, he flaked out and didn't come back to wrestle at Wrestlemania 13.  Then there was the whole "Montreal Screw Job" at Survivor Series and his title loss at Wrestlemania 14.  Shawn then left the business to recover from injuries until 2002.

Some would argue his second stint in the WWE was better.  He had some incredible matches throughout both tenures.  But for me, that first heel run was more enjoyable as the Heartbreak Kid character.  He truly "brought it" as far as I'm concerned.

Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat (1986-1989): 

Title History & Key Wins:


*Beat Hercules at Wrestlemania 2 (4/2/86)

*Pinned Bret Hart in a classic match that was originally supposed to happen at Wrestlemania 2 (It should have been on the PPV, IMO)

*Started an epic feud with Jake "the Snake" Roberts in mid 1986, getting the upper hand in that program, including a pinfall win on Saturday Night's Main Event (9/13/86)

*Pinned "Macho Man" Randy Savage for the Intercontinental title at Wrestlemania III.  This match set the standard for quality Wrestlemania matches and more than 25 years later still holds up.  (3/29/87)

After Steamboat lost the IC title to Honky Tonk Man a few months later, he started a major downhill slide in the WWF.  He beat HTM mostly by countout and DQ in the rematches that followed.

*Was one of the "survivors" on his Survivor Series team (11/26/87)

*Beat "Ravishing" Rick Rude by DQ at the first Royal Rumble.  This match I think is pretty underrated, as it was an excellent showing by both and  prelude to a feud down the road in WCW. (1/24/88)

*Lost to Greg Valentine in Round 1 of the WWF title tournament at Wrestlemania 4.

Shortly after that, he left the company and took some time off.  Steamboat reemerged better than ever in the NWA.

*Pinned Ric Flair for the NWA World title at Chi-Town Rumble (2/20/89)

*Beat Flair in a best of 3 falls match at Clash of the Champions

*Lost the title back to Flair at WrestleWar (5/7/89)

That series of matches with Flair are some of the best in wrestling history.  Although Steamboat's run at both IC and NWA title were short lived, he always put on a great match.  Personally, I would have loved a Steamboat WWFWrestlemania 4 tournament.

The Match:


Both Michaels and Steamboat would give their all in this match, even if it were to happen today, I think it has the potential to be a 5 star contest.  I think Steamboat would try to launch an aerial assault, while Michaels would stick to a more mat based defense.

While Steamboat enjoyed brief success at the top of the mountain, Shawn won more titles during his 3 year period.  Of course, this was more in the modern era of wrestling with weekly Raws and monthly pay per views.

Would Steamboat have been just as successful had their been the same kind of programming in the 80's? I think you'd be a fool to say no.  But based on what actually happened in these two men's careers, I've got to declare Shawn Michaels the winner of this week's Fantasy Friday match up.

What are your thoughts?  Share them here or on Facebook, Twitter, or even YouTube.

Macho Man Had Heart Disease

Photo from TimBoylesPhotography.com

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

It's been just over a month since we wrestling fans lost "Macho Man" Randy Savage.  The former WWE and WCW world champion died in Florida after crashing his jeep on May 20th.

The medical examiner has released his report and it appears Savage died of heart disease.  The report also found trace amounts of alcohol and hydrocodone in Savage's system, but investigators say it was not enough to have caused the crash.

The Associate Press is reporting that the autopsy revealed Macho had an enlarged heart with severe blocking of his coronary arteries.  He only had minor injuries as a result of that crash.

Savage's brother, Lanny Poffo has said before that his sister in law grabbed the wheel and avoided a head on collison with other drivers on the road that morning. 

Randy Savage was 58 years old, and had been married for the second time for about one year.  May he continue to rest in peace.