Latest PPV and weekly show discussion thread

Pizzamania? Pizzamania.

pizzamania.hankhuckabay.com

Site is still super new so you are basically bug testing. If your using IE there is also a chance it may be...not good.

@papercut: Fantastic! I love how you snuck in the Battle of the Bears and Rabid. As for the gallery, the Japanese Strong Style is definitely my favorite. Excellent work! Did the exhibition go well?

I think I'm in agreement that the Japanese one is my favorite of the bunch(though Carnival has my favorite pair of wrestling tights), but overall great job of taking a dumb joke and going all the way with it. Hopefully the exhibit goes(went?) well!

@papercut:

@papercut: Duuuuuuuuuude, it's so good. Love the Battle of the Bears and Rabid references. And yeah, that Japanese Strong Style one is fucking phenomenal. Here's to hoping the exhibit goes/went stellar.

So fuck man. I'm totally out of the loop when the hell is extreme rules? Is it next sunday? Was it this sunday? Hell I've not even been paying attention.

@papercut:

Awesome! Love how that turned out, looks like you're in the (p)zone.

@demoskinos:

Oh right, wrestling has PPVs... I've honestly just been on autopilot lately, I completely forgot about Extreme Rules too.

@rabid619: Yeah, me either. I'm still sorta paying attention but mostly because The shield is still awesome and Ziggler still gives me a wrestling boner. I'm waiting for them to screw both of those things up so I can just throw my hands up and quit for awhile.

If nothing else a Ziggler/Swagger/Del Rio Ladder Match sounds like a whole boat load of fun.

A bad story segment is enough of a reason to change the channel as a bad match. I didn't say just because its part of a story, that automatically makes it worth watching. Bad content is bad content, no matter if its a match or story related. I'll agree with you that I'd rather watch a bad match than a lame story segment.

I also never said good matches aren't a draw, just that good matches alone aren't enough. I think comparing an indy show and WWE isn't really fair. Your expectations are different for each. WWE is at the top of the food chain, there shouldn't be any reason why they put out such a shitty product 95% of the time. If I was going to see a Chikara show, I wouldn't know what to expect really but I wouldn't go in expecting the best wrestling show possible.

Paul London suffered a concussion off of Davey Richards double foot stomp during the iPPV

In a match-up that surprises nobody. Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe will happen at Best In The World this year.

Y2J will be on Raw tonight.

@williamhenry: Point taken. I am more apt to criticize the WWE than Chikara because of my expectations, the scale of the product, and what it means to me. I think it's the reason Wrestlemania felt like a disappointment. It would have been a decent PPV, but it felt like worse product because it was Wrestlemania.

That being said, the WWE has always had storyline hits and misses. Even in the Attitude Era, dumb stuff like Stephanie McMahon being tried to an Undertaker symbol and Mark Henry's sexual exploits kept me clicking away and waiting for the matches. The good stuff though, the Ziggler/ADR/Swagger storyline as an example, is compelling and worth wading through the bad.

Some of it is also just taste and preference. Even though he never has a storyline going, I like to see Santino wrestle. I know a number of people who will flip the channel once they see him powerwalk to the ring. Everyone's expectations for the product are going to vary and that includes discerning what makes a good character and a good storyline.

That Sick Freak Brock Lesnar is destroying office equipment!

http://www.wwe.com/inside/brock-lesnar-wwe-headquarters-26112944

@drx25:

"This isn't supposed to happen in an office."

- Another Office Employee

@papercut: That was amazing, duder. Great job. To celebrate, here's the return of WWE in 5 Minutes:

@drx25: I don't really like this guy's work over Thrillmurray's

Is it a different guy doing these now? I remember the old ones being much more clever. These are just tired memes and catch phrases played over clips.

I started to watch Border Wars last night but only got through a couple matches before I fell asleep. (Not the show's fault, it was late and I was tired.) But from what I did see...

• I've officially run out of ways to say ACH is amazing. Him, Thomas and C&C all did great in the opening match. I'm not really holding my breath on ROH using ACH to his full potential at any point but I'll hold out hope.
• I have no idea what this "Cheeseburger" shit was about during the Mike Bennett-Roderick Strong match but it sucked. Sexual assault isn't cool, kids. Nice to see that the face-heel dynamic is completely fucked in other places besides WWE. Use Mike Bennett better, ROH or let him go someplace else where he will be.
• The I Quit Match was whatever but I did enjoy the end with Steve Corino sacrificing himself. I like that SCUM has become kind of cult instead of just Aces & Eights: ROH Remix.
• The SCUM-ROH tag match is kind of a blur as I think this is the part where I started to fall asleep. I did find it weird that Steen has so quickly gone from being an unbeatable monster to taking the pin on back-to-back PPVs. Not necessarily a bad thing, just kind of strange.

And by the way, this:

@milkman: I don't know if it's been talked about on here or not, but Bryan vs. Ryback is an awesome match that should be seen by everyone. It's got logic.

Also, here's video of Davey Richards killing Paul London. Don't watch if you don't want to see someone's head getting smashed:

@turboman: Jesus fucking christ, that's bad.

MONDAY NIGHT CHAT

TONIGHT...

• will John Cena be able to RISE ABOVE ACHILLES?
• After Brock Lesnar went on the warpath at WWE HQ, what piece of furniture will he demolish next?
• Antonio Cesaro lost again last week but actually looked like a human being, can he do it again?
• How will Sheamus emasculate Mark Henry this week? Racial slurs? Insulting his mother? TUNE IN AND FIND OUT!!!

@turboman: Is that a move he performs often? How would you possibly make that move safe?

@cmblasko: He does it every once in a while, usually nails them in the chest (where he's supposed to hit). He just overjumped on this one.

^ Seriously, that was brutal as hell. Hope that isn't a career ender.

@turboman: Oh no. Fuck you for posting that. Fuck me for watching that. No! NO! NOOOO!!

So I've been out of the Wrestling Thread loop, or just wrestling in general. So few questions.

Is Raw been any good since post Mania Raw?

How much Chikara have I missed?

Hows this SCUM stuff going?

Extreme Rules is on May 19th. Not a real question, just wanted to point that out there. Hopefully Luke Gallows comes back at Extreme Rules to fuck with Kane in that awesome wig.

Holy Shit how is Paul London still alive?

What the HELL is this Big E music?!

What the DOUBLE HELL is this Extreme Rules poster?

How is this Xtreme/What the hell are you pointing at Sheamus/That index finger looks super weird.

That is all.

Gotcha. For some reason indy guys really seem to love those M. Bison stomps.

I hate when indy wrestlers botch their own move, resulting in their partner getting hurt, and their only response is to then shrug to the crowd like "oh well, that's what he gets for putting his safety in my hands." You see that in the CZW Botchamania videos a lot.

Well how was it guys I can't anymore.

Was it has good as this

@cmblasko: Yeah cuz every guy in WWE is safe and people never get hurt, wait people ALMOST CONSTANTLY get hurt every few weeks in the WWE due to unsafe moves. Shit like that will always happen because those guys are human and they make mistakes. To act like that only happens on the indie scene is ridiculous.

@papercut:

Is Raw been any good since post Mania Raw?

It's had its moments. The show has kind of suffered without Punk.

How much Chikara have I missed?

There were two shows in March and another one WrestleMania weekend. COLONY X-TREME FORCE

Hows this SCUM stuff going?

Matt Hardy is still in it so, poorly.

Holy Shit how is Paul London still alive?

Weed.

@bennym6: I didn't say that it only happens in the indies.

Matt Hardy doesn't have particularly good matches, but he gets the most heat out of every audience, and Steve Corino's introduction of Hardy at Supercard of Honor made it all worth it (When he claimed Matt Hardy was the Jesus Christ of professional wrestling, and announced him as being from the Holy City of Cameron, North Carolina).

Yeah, modern day Matt Hardy does a pretty good job of depicting his completely scum bag-ish self (no pun intended). I don't know how much of that is him intentionally coming off that way or if he simply can't hide it, but i certainly enjoy hating him. He's like a tolerable Charlie Haas.

Regardless of Matt Hardy getting heat, that doesn't mean that he's actually good at his job. He gets heat because he's Matt Hardy, not because he's a good heel.

Admittedly, I do enjoy when Corino seems to be actively trolling with Hardy, hyping him up to these ridiculous levels but that doesn't mean I ever want to watch him talk and/or wrestle.

I was being dismissive with SCUM there though. I actually am enjoying what they're doing with it to a certain extent.

I might wait and do the WNW thing on Sunday night... or next wednesday...

Sorry got that wrong, updated the Smackdown Cliffsnotes to what the reports are saying closed the show.

Main Event Cliffsnotes:

Smackdown Cliffsnotes:

So Kofi and Team Hell No vs The Shield in a winner takes all match? Also, no Sheamus or Fandango on this show, which is weird. Even weirder is what's being reported as the show closing segment (I have to imagine that it will get edited into earlier in the show).

WHAT!?

Someone save David Otunga, he is trapped in the insanity of late night HLN trial coverage.

HOOOOOOOOOOOLY FUCK.

That actually got a pop + clapping if my hearing is any good. Speaking of hearing, if you watch the footage of Lesnar trashing Triple H's office you can tell that most of what Heyman said was recorded in-post and was a reaction to what Brock did.

My reaction at Raw having another 1/2 an hour exclusively on Yahoo?

Jesus, RAW was already 3hrs 15 mins, now its going to 3:45 on Yahoo, and according to this thread Smackdown re-aired an entire 10-15 minute segment from RAW on their own way-too-long show?

DDP did a YouShoot interview and it looks pretty fun. Aside from probably dodging the wife-swapping stories in WCW (not that anybody should care that much anyways), it looks like DDP isn't pulling any punches here.

Sigh...I'd be lying if I said I was surprised. But this is depressing all the same...

Cool champion, ROH!

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/the-turnstile/jerry-lawler-returning-ring-eight-months-heart-attack-200638572.html

Jerry Lawler after being medically cleared is returning to wrestling. To tag with Dory Funk. Why?

Also Saturday Morning Slam might be ending/going on hiatus.

@gorillamopena: The way it was written in the Wrestling Observer news piece, it sounds like CW ordered the show like a morning cartoon and only asked WWE to make X number of episodes and then probably run repeats until they found a replacement show or ordered them to make some more.

Also, Dolph Ziggler is out with a concussion:

World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler suffered a concussion at Tuesday night’s SmackDown taping at N.C. State when he interfered in Big E Langston's bout with Jack Swagger. According to WWE physician Dr. Michael Sampson, Ziggler was injured during the early part of the fracas after a blow to the face. A post-match examination by WWE medical staff confirmed the injury.

“He [was] having some memory difficulties and a bit of a headache … he definitely has a concussion,” said Sampson. “We’re checking him out, and going to be doing neuropsychological testing and just keep it monitored.”

Though clinically Ziggler’s concussion was confirmed, the tests – which should yield results within the next couple of days – will provide WWE medical officials with a “baseline” from which to monitor The Showoff’s clinical and neuropsychological progress as time passes.

Check back with WWE.com for more updates on Ziggler’s condition.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/dolph-ziggler-suffers-concussion-26113883

Yeah that is what it seems like. Still sucks that it won't be on every week, it is quite the fun show.

Concussion news is ugly, but there should be time for him to recover before the PPV. If he isn't cleared by then, eesh, I guess they could throw it on Del Rio/Swagger then have Ziggler come back saying he never lost it.

@milkman: That's super painful to read. I mean, I know he is his character and you have a right to believe whatever you want, but you have to know that you can't say something like that when you're the face of a very small company.

@gorillamopena: I'm thinking that it's depending on the severity of the concussion, but most of the time WWE seems to clear their wrestlers to return in about a week.

Update on Jay Briscoe shooting gay rights activists: his Twitter account seems to have been deleted. So, there's that. I gotta assume there's going to be some sort of punishment coming his way from ROH. I would hope so anyway.