Pre-show notes:
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– GIFS courtesy of Jerusalem at Punchsport Pagoda.
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Anyway, welcome back. Please click through for the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for January 7, 2013.
Worst: Let’s Recap The Poopies, In Case Brandon Was Lucky Enough To Miss It
Before we pick back up with the column, I feel like I should explain my absence of the last two weeks.
The lack of a column two weeks ago is easy enough to explain — WWE aired a pre-taped, Christmas-themed Raw on Christmas Eve, and because nobody at UPROXX updated on Christmas (choosing to be with our families instead of on the Internet, or whatever) we let that Raw go. The next week’s Raw was also pre-taped, and also fell on a holiday: New Year’s Eve. I stayed home to watch that Raw and everything, but it’s impossible for me to avoid spoilers, so I purposefully skipped the show’s ending.
My intention was to write the column as normal. On New Year’s Day, I got a call from my mother informing me that my 53-year old father had just had his second heart attack. Hopefully you can understand why I wouldn’t want to sit in front of a computer making jokes about Kofi Kingston’s hit detection with my dad on the brink of death 10 states away. The good news is that my dad’s condition was downgraded to “heart trauma” and then a “heart episode,” which means he’ll be fine as long as he stops eating flank steak every day and trying to lose weight by doing non-stop jumping jacks to reach his New Year’s resolution on day one. The silver lining is that I didn’t have to write about John Cena literally dropping stage-poop on his ex-girlfriend.
I guess WWE sent out a memo reading, “his dad’s fine, make sure he sees the poop part,” so last night’s Raw, in the first moments of the first segment on my first show back, they recapped the entirety of the slut-shaming poop drop. At least they left out the photoshop jokes, so … Happy New Year?
Best: Big E Langston’s Hilarious Mic Skills
I think my favorite part of Raw was Big E Langston grabbing the microphone, then being openly surprised about the fact that he was able to speak. OH I GOT THE MIC NOW. YO CENA. It was glorious. It was like they’d pulled somebody out of the crowd to do a wrestler impression and challenge John Cena.
It doesn’t make any sense, though. Dolph Ziggler’s standing there shaking his head “no,” so Langston picks up the mic and accepts the challenge. That cues Ziggler’s music, so Dolph just WALKS TO THE RING AND WRESTLES JOHN ANYWAY. How the hell does THAT work? I get that when Teddy Long waddles out and Holler Hollers at you he’s got some modicum of kayfabe power, so you’ve got to do what he says … but Big E is the third most important person in a three-person stable. If Hulk Hogan refused to fight sting, could Horace just show up and be all IT’S AWNNNNN and start the match? Could the nWo angle have been over in five minutes if Horace had just been really into fantasy booking?
Don’t get me wrong, though, I love it. I hope Big E gets to talk more and stays weird about it. With Titus O’Neil becoming suddenly charismatic, we need another musclebound guy who cuts wrestling promos like he’s ordering at a drive-thru.
Worst: John Cena, Overcomin’ Them Odds
I’m not sure why this match happened. WWE’s favorite story to tell now is “heel is an opportunist, achieves small personal victory, loses match to upcoming opponent, loses another match to upcoming opponent, loses another match to upcoming opponent, loses to opponent at PPV, achieves second opportunistic victory in unrelated situation, becomes champion.” They LOVE it. When Daniel Bryan won the World Heavyweight Championship, 99% of commentary was “Daniel Bryan sure is terrible, I bet he’s going to lose here,” and then he’d pretty much lose, but he’d find a way to keep the belt and everybody acted upset. I don’t know why “you have something you don’t DESERVE” is the big WWE selling point, but I guess it always has been.
I feel like Cena could’ve just wrestle and defeat Dolph repeatedly without having to have the odds stacked against him every week. Before TLC, it wasn’t just “Dolph vs. Cena, who is better,” it was “Dolph vs. Cena but Cena’s leg is hurt and he’s worried about his girlfriend and has too much on his mind.” Cena only lost at TLC because of an extraneous, Cena-related happenstance. Dolph didn’t do shit. Now it’s not “Cena vs. Dolph, so Cena can get his revenge,” it’s Cena vs. Dolph and AJ and Big E Langston, and they’re doing ref bumps that don’t effect the end of the match just to do them and on and on. It’s not even like they’re stacking the odds to give John something to slowly overcome. If he had to beat Langston to get to Dolph or whatever that’d be fine. Basic wrestling storytelling. Instead, he’s just beating them all at once immediately, because RESOLVE. And now he’s moving on to the Royal Rumble, which he probably won’t win because of Dolph + X, followed by four consecutive Raws of him beating up Dolph to get revenge.
Just have normal odds, John, it’s fine.
Best: Everything Else About This Match
The match itself was really, really good. It was one of two pay-per-view quality matches on the show, and even though it’s a variation on the same Cena workrate match we’ve been seeing since last Summer, that’s a welcomed reprieve from Cena tagging in to hit his moves and stand tall. I’m also not going to give a Worst to a Raw that gets the wacky talking over by 8:10 and parlays it into a 15-minute one-on-one match. This is how Raws should start. You know, besides Cena doing the wave.
The crowd made the match even better. They were hot the entire time and reacted big for all the near falls (I’m glad Ziggler started using that jumping DDT as his big falsie instead of the Fame-asser, because seriously, he is never going to win a match with the Fame-asser). My favorite part was Cena losing his shoe and exposing his tiny foot, outing himself officially as a Rob Liefeld character. He’s always screaming, he’s got pouches on his ring gear … all we needed was to see his baby feet for confirmation. WWE should figure out a way to make one of his eyes glow.
Best: Fandango’s Videos Are Regressing
I love that the early Fandango(o) hype videos advertised him as ANGELIC and NOBLE and gave him a bunch of catchphrases (“Mind if I cut in?” and “Watch your step!” among them), but now it’s just him turning around and saying “Fandango” with no additional information. Next week’s promo should just be a big letter F, then a close up of Johnny Curtis going “uhhhhhhhhhhh.”
Actually, next week’s video should end with him turning to the camera and saying, “oh, sorry, I’m not a wrestler. I’m just a dance instructor who bought ad time!”
Best: The Divas Division Is Seriously Just Three People, But It’s Getting Better
I’ve talked a lot about how much Eve Torres has improved, but not enough about Kaitlyn.
Watch this clip from last night. In a very short time, Kaitlyn has gone from one of the worst wrestlers ever to being really pretty good in-ring. Watch how much impact her offense has. When she lifts Eve up for the side slam, she doesn’t just awkwardly fall down like Aksana might, she dives to the side and plants Eve into the mat. Watch that shoulderblock. She’s not just Ghostbuster Dog jumping like Cena and hoping for the best, she’s really throwing her weight into it, and Eve’s able to make it look spectacular because it’s spectacular already. The counter into the reverse DDT is smooth, something Divas rarely are, and she makes it look like she’s actually DOING something when she connects, instead of falling backwards. Reverse DDTs NEVER look like they hurt. So yeah, Kaitlyn is gorgeous, but she’s also kinda kicking ass, and we should pay attention to that.
I didn’t like Eve bailing on the match, mostly because they have somebody bail on a match five times per episode (WWE ’14 should let you take your championship and walk out by hitting triangle, square, circle or X at any time during a match), but at least she looked like she was bailing on a beating, and not just taking a couple of signature moves and calling it quits. She didn’t take the easy way out on the bail, either, she hopped the rails and fled. That made it look more like an act of cowardice, and less like a shitty booking decision.
Also, this:
Good stuff all around. Let’s keep this going, and maybe add, I don’t know, other people to the division so we can let the Divas be a thing.
Best: Wade Barrett Versus Ricky Steamboat Now, Please
As longtime readers of The Best And Worst of Raw know, I love the Nexus and consider myself a bit of a Nexus historian. If Ken Burns ever gets brought in to film a documentary for the NEXUS: WWE’s BEST IDEA DVD, I’ll be its Buck O’Neil. Just wistfully smiling and saying “WRESTLING” with emphasis. Worst case scenario, I’ll be its Doris Kearns Goodwin, telling good-hearted stories about how wrestling always makes me sad.
Anyway, Wade Barrett approaching Santino’s “I like a yous matches against a Machoes Mans a Randys Savashes” shit with Ricky Steamboat made me happier than most, because it reminded me of that time the Nexus jacked him so bad he got shoot body failure. That clip is AWESOME. When those guys get together again, it’s going to be epic. It will also be because I finally got that WWE Creative job, because nobody else gives a f**k.
This is how continuity should work, though. You shouldn’t write it expecting your audience to remember what happened 2 1/2 years ago, but it should be there (and right) for the people who know.
Worst: The Tag Team Division Is Too Good To Do Champion Non-Title Losses And Repeated Championship Shots For The Same Team
I hate to give a Team Hell No/Rhodes Scholars match a Worst — especially seeing as how I bookended it with Bests for a Divas match and a Randy Orton squash — but I didn’t really enjoy it. It was fine, and moments of it were great (like the small package, or Cody sniping the leg to hit the Cross Rhodes), but it seemed … I don’t know, counter-productive? Like more of the same?
Tom Holzerman at The Wrestling Blog has a good piece up about how WWE seemingly forgot the progress they’d made with Daniel Bryan and Kane for the sake of encapsulating the story for casual viewers who’d tuned in for the first time in months to see The Rock, and I can see where he’s coming from. I popped for Dr. Shelby, but I don’t think he’s necessary … the team has sorta moved on to their own thing with The Shield and Rhodes Scholars and don’t need to go back to the skit well in 2013. They can succeed as a team on their own and have stories that reference their past, but don’t dwell on it so much it sacrifices what they’ve become.
I’m also not (ever) a fan of champions losing non-title matches to set up a title match, especially against a team that has gotten multiple title matches. If they’re wrestling the Usos non-title to set up a title challenge, sure, but Rhodes Scholars shouldn’t be stuck in WWE’s “these are the two people in the division, when one of them loses we just make them wrestle again, make up a reason why” schtick. You built a division, guys. It’s good, and it makes sense. Now you have to remember that it exists.
Supplementary Best for this uneasy Worst goes for Sandow and Rhodes proclaiming that they’ll beat Team Hell No because they are BEST FRIENDS in Backstage Fallout, which continues to be the best thing WWE does.
Best: I Will Watch Heath Slater Wrestle Anybody
I think I figured it out: I don’t like any of Heath Slater’s matches, I just love watching him wrestle.
Is that weird? I seriously can’t think of a time when I said, “wow, that was a GREAT Heath Slater match,” but every time he wrestles I’m glued to the television. I like watching him ply his craft. The end results aren’t always great, but he’s great at his job. It’s like a late-era Radiohead album. I think they’re geniuses and love listening to hear what they’re doing, even if the songs are mostly terrible.
Radiohead can turn an award show performance into a complex musical spectacle, and Heath Slater can make Randy Orton’s offense look like it might hurt somebody. Dude should get an award for achievement in the field of Throwing Yourself Over For A Powerslam.
Worst: Randy Orton Should Be Different
This isn’t so much a “Worst” as it is a suggestion. Last night we had two dueling backstage segments wherein a top-shelf WWE babyface ran down 3MB and ended up in a match with them. One was Orton, and one was Sheamus. They were basically the same.
That’s kinda the problem I have with Orton. He’s a character, but he never fully commits to it. When Sheamus sees TREE EMBEE, he’s like “HEY TREE EMBEE OR TREE EMBIEBER AS YA LOIKE TA BE CALLED” … yeah, I can’t do this whole thing in his accent. But he’s like YOU’RE LIKE JUSTIN BIEBER YOUR BAND STINKS YOU SMELL LIKE POOPY I’M BETTER THAN YOU YOU’RE ALL GAY BABIES FACE ME NOW, and that’s that. Sheamus The Character is a dipshit 5-year old and I think we’ve all accepted it.
Orton’s threats should never be like that. They shouldn’t even be the subdued “we’re gonna have a match, TONIGHT” stuff he pulled with them. When 3MB saunters up to Orton and goes WOO 3MB BAYBAYYY, Orton should respond with “I am going to slit your throats, get the f**k away from me” and then just CRAZY VIOLENCE. Like, people should be afraid to approach him backstage. Hornswoggle should run up to him all LOOK AT M’BALLS HEH-HEH and get brained with a tire iron. That’s the Orton I want to write. A guy we love and want to see because ho-ho-hooooly shit you shouldn’t have messed with him.
Worst: The Bullhammer Is Still The Worst
If this match is just a set-up to Wade Barrett defending the Intercontinental Championship against Ricky Steamboat at the Royal Rumble — or even Wade entering the Rumble match and having a showdown with a cat-skinning surprise legend — I’ll be happy to go back and give it a Best. As it stands, it was a minute or so of Santino being Santino, and Wade finishing him off with the worst finish in pro wrestling.
I know nothing makes a WWE-based readership madder quicker than mentioning Japan, but Wade should spend the next six months watching Kazuchika Okada throw the f**king Rainmaker until he learns how to plow through people with a short-arm strike or gives up and starts using the Overdrive.
Best: The Superman Exists, And He’s Swiss
Standard “Antonio Cesaro is WWE TV’s MVP right now and if you aren’t on the bandwagon yet, what’re you, stupid” paragraph here.
That was the best Great Khali match ever, right? I’m not making that up, am I? Khali looked motivated and mobile (probably because his wife and their weird child were clapping at ringside), and Cesaro looked like Legolas taking down a goddamn oliphaunt. Miz whimpering over the match about how he had the “experience” edge on the “rookie” Cesaro was pretty unbearable, but the sight of a clearly superior human being taking apart a much larger foe is the spectacular, worked-storyline shit I expect from a company built on freaks and fake fighting.
Cesaro’s springboard M. Bison European uppercut has got to be the greatest thing going right now. That move is so gorgeous it should be narrated by David Attenborough.
Worst: Nobody Watches Main Event
The only problem I had with the match is that they did the exact same one with the exact same moves and finish on Main Event last week. I get that Raw has a bigger audience and you want to save your big moments for your flagship show, but come on, guys, Main Event isn’t a house show. It’s on national television. People can watch it. You can ape from it for the casual fans, but you shouldn’t pretend like it never happened, especially if you are Michael Cole and Jerry The King Lawler. You guys are paid to watch the f**king wrestling. WATCH IT.
I guess I’m talking to the guy who’d never seen a Big Show superplex collapse the ring on its second go-round and cried out WE’VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE the first 15 times Sheamus tried a cloverleaf, but whatever. I feel like “if you missed this on Main Event, get ready to see something spectacular” would work just as well as “WE ARE ALL EXPERIENCING THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME.”
Again, the continuity doesn’t have to be dense, but it shouldn’t loop back and lie about itself as soon as it happens. Even for seemingly-inconsequential building block stuff like this.
Worst: #ButtStuff
Remember that thing I said about Sheamus being a 5-year old? In his match with Jinder Mahal, it set it up so Jinder would touch his butt, then made fun of him for touching butts. This is the crowd that chanted “CM Gay” at a hug, so I guess he was just hitting as many lay-ups as possible.
The match wasn’t bad, but when Sheamus The Speaker starts to replace Sheamus The Wrestler, bad things are bound to happen. This is really a worst case scenario for me. For over a year now I’ve been able to excuse most of his shitting-in-the-Mexican’s-car stuff because his in-ring work is so solid. But if he’s going to have fewer matches that end with him groggy and beaten until he looks like a piece of raw chicken and more where he laughs at you for touching his ass, I don’t know, I might have to officially give up on him.
Jack Swagger Of Mars
Chapter 8
The ride back up the descent shaft was a long and cold one for Jack Swagger. For the longest time he sat in silence, staring down at his boots, holding his left arm, trying not to … he wasn’t sure what he wasn’t trying to do. Get kicked off the planet? Get murdered by this alien woman who’d briefly taken him in and shown him the magnificent city in the red planet’s core, only to deride him with her eyes on this elevator’s endless return to the surface?
Jack Swagger wasn’t sure what would happen next. In a soft voice, Kaa’orri spoke first.
“I told you to stay put and not cause any trouble.”
“AHM THORRY,” Swagger responded, lashing out more loudly than he’d intended. More silence. Finally,
“You’re lucky they bought the story about you being a delivery. There are some really screwed up people on Mars. Humans are a commodity here. Most of us have never seen one. There was one who teleported here in the 80s, and Carl Sagan, but …” she began to trail off. “You’re a handsome human. You’re lucky, like I said. If you were ugly, they wouldn’t have believed somebody paid for you.”
“Rully?” Jack asked, a smile creeping across his face.
“Don’t let it go to your head, human,” Kaa’orri responded. “When we get back to the surface, I’m giving you a piece of MarsBread and sending you on your way. If you die in a nest this time, it’s on you.”
“Thath fair.” A thousand images raced through Jack’s head … he wondered what it would be like to fend for himself on the surface, or how he’d find the fuels to repower his ship and continue his voyage around the planet … or hell, how he’d find his way back to the Rhadamanthus at all. But mostly the images were about Kaa’orri, who’d just told him he was handsome. Because seriously.
“I’m thorry I methed up your delivery, Kaa’orri,” Jack whispered.
“Well,” she responded, “it’s what it is. They took the money for the damages out of my credits, which means I’ve only got enough gas to get about halfway home … I’ll have to walk the rest of the way, so thanks for that. If I die in a nest too, I guess there’d be a poetry to it.”
Jack barely understood anything she said, both because of her Martian accent, and because I can’t imagine Jack Swagger being very good at conversation. He nodded, to let her know he was listening, because he was.
“Of course, you’re never allowed in the core again. Per order of the magistrate. But, you know, they don’t really have identification or anything, so I expect any six-six caucasoid who stumbles his way down the shaft will spend his vacation at the door.”
Kaa’orri laughed. It was beautiful to Jack. And she said he was handsome once!
“I gueth I won’t do that again.”
“No, no you won’t.”
Silence.
Neither said another word until the elevator reached the top of the shaft, and the great gate once again opened up to reveal the endless starfield, and the dusty earth of the lonely planet swirling up to meet it. Kaa’orri reached into her satchel and removed a folded, red leaf. Inside was a small loaf of pink bread.
“This should last you until you get back to your ship … or at least back to where I found you.”
“Good luck on your drive home,” Jack said, sheepishly. “How far away ith it?”
“Really far,” Kaa’orri said with a sigh. “Really, really far.”
“Wull … wull …” Jack was getting an idea, so he grapevined it to keep it from getting away. “MY ship ith probably closer than your home … why don’t we ride your bike back there, and then I’ll use MY bike to get you home.” Jack smiled. It was a pretty good idea.
“You have a bike?” Kaa’orri asked.
“No, even better. I’ve got a THORING EAGLE.”
Kaa’orri didn’t know what a “thoring eagle” was, but he owed her for saving his hide, and she knew the walk with a speeder bike in tow would leave her dead in hours. Reluctantly, she took back the MarsBread and stuffed it into her satchel.
“All right,” she confirmed. “But that’s it. When I get home, we go our separate ways.”
“Fine by me,” Jack affirmed, climbing onto the back of Kaa’orri’s speeder before she was even done packing up.
Best: A True PPV Match On Raw
The Punk/Ryback TLC match wasn’t the bait-and-switch or the “storyline” match I thought it’d be — I thought they’d have The Shield jump Ryback right at the beginning and turn it into a big dumb there where Punk could be an “opportunist” and steal the victory without working — but it wasn’t. It was the very definition of a great Raw match … must-see in its action, characters and storyline progression.
It was fun. It featured a lot of unexpected violence, like Ryback Rybacking his ass through a table propped up against the guardrail, that dangerous-looking powerbomb through a table onto steel steps thing and the EXTREMELY DANGEROUS-LOOKING press slam onto the middle of a set-up ladder. I don’t know why that one got to me so much, but it did. I can’t open or close a three-ring binder without catching my finger in it, all I could imagine was metal bending in the wrong place and slicing up Punk’s abdomen like it was Joey Mercury’s face.
If they want to win back viewers and don’t give a shit about sacrificing their pay-per-view dollars for ratings pops, this is what they should be doing. Put less emphasis on rehashed main-eventer “blockbuster” tag matches we see without hyperbole at least twice a month, and worry more about giving us things we don’t see all the time, like a TLC Championship match, or hell, just guys going all out. It’s the difference between Brodus Clay debuting as a dancing dinosaur and STAYING a dancing dinosaur.
The only problems I had with the match were that it happened way too early in the show to make room for The Rock making Bozo The Clown Grand Prize Game prize jokes, and:
Worst: It’s Time To Move Forward With the Shield/Brad Maddox Stuff
I get that the storyline got stuck in a holding pattern when Punk got injured before TLC, but it’s time to decide what we’re doing with Brad Mad-Ox and The Shield and run with it. Shit, or get off the pot. Maddox has been hanging out backstage asking people for jobs for what, almost three months? The Shield is still showing up to shows to beat people up for reasons, but I guess they don’t care about wrestling, which is how I assume wrestlers get paid?
If you’re going to make a stable, make it now. Use it as fodder for The Rock. I’d rather see him give Maddox a Rock Bottom out of nowhere and make HIM look like an also-ran instead of Punk. If you’re going to make them independent characters, do that. Give Maddox a kayfabe NXT contract or whatever and send him down to fight Sterling James Keenan, put him in a flak jacket and have him be the Dangerous Danny Davis of The Shield, whatever. Add The Shield to your roster as wrestlers and let them perform, because they had some momentum going after that great match at TLC, and people would probably like to see it. Just do SOMETHING that isn’t CM PUNK WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BRAD MADDOX AND THE SHIELD every f**king week, because it’s not accomplishing anything and nobody gives a shit about the mystery. They either are something or they aren’t. Jerry Lawler going WULL I GUESS THIS MEANS doesn’t mean anything.
Mostly, I just want to see what the hell BEEF MODE is about.
Best: Best Kofi Kingston Match Ever
AAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
AAAAAA HA HA HA HA
Oh MERCY. Quick, here’s a GIF of the entire match:
It’s like the karmic balance for the Daniel Bryan/Sheamus World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania. I feel as happy watching this as I felt sad watching that. I love it. Here’s to hoping we get to see an Air Boom reunion on an EVOLVE card somewhere during WrestleCon.
Best: But No, Seriously
Best: CM By God Punk
I apologize in advance for this clip being as edited as it is.
I mentioned this briefly a few weeks ago when Flair showed up and Punk stopped being a RESPECT ME cartoon character and started to once again sound like he meant what he was saying. That’s always been Punk’s strongest card — believing what he says, right or wrong. That’s really all I’ve ever wanted from him as a performer, and last night he gave it to me. Last night was the most brilliant moment in Punk’s WWE career for me, because he brought the “do I have everybody’s attention now” character from the criss-cross applesauce wall-breaking full circle and got to the point I’ve been BEGGING him to make — that his stupid good guy character was a measured act of spite against the WWE Universe. Not a “I did it because I hate you” platitude, a clear, personal statement that he was acting like an incompetent asshole because that’s the only thing we cheer for.
When Punk “spoke the truth” on the stage, he wasn’t really speaking the truth. He was telling us what we wanted to hear. That’s what ‘Cult Of Personality’ was brought back for. He’s always been in it for himself. So now when he says that you should push “a workhorse like Tyson Kidd,” people kinda cheer because he’s “shooting,” but then he goes right back into explaining that he’s doing it to play us. He doesn’t give a shit about Tyson Kidd. It’s meta as f**k, and the best part is that THIS sincerity, the sincerity of the lie, is what makes my heart swell.
This guy can reach such heights with his character, and I love it. He can say what’s true to me and not mean it, and the fact that he doesn’t mean it makes me feel a thousand times better than if he was on Raw truly berating management for not giving Kidd a spot. The cruelty of the knife-turn, you know? That’s pro wrestling. A big, theatrical, orchestral insult to everybody watching. A f**k you for your dollar. In the same vein as a Walter White or a Don Draper, he’s a reprehensible guy who is so compelling that I can subconsciously root for his successes, mostly because they’ll make his downfall that much more special. A beautiful creep, the devil of the human brain.
This is all important, because here comes this asshole:
Worst: The Rock, Or “How To Make Brandon Actually Hate A Pro Wrestler”
There was so much wrong with this, I don’t even know where to begin. Actually, I do know where to begin. That’s two, not 20, stupid.
The Rock has become such an icon to the casual fan that he brings them back into your pro graps conversation in waves … just a bunch of people who don’t care enough to watch the show or think constructively about anything that has happened in wrestling or society or culture in the x-amount of time since they last watched but feel it necessary to explain that THEIR opinion matters just as much as YOURS, and that you’re smug and think you’re better than them if you disagree. People who desire only moment-to-moment stimulation, and have no interested in putting in the time or effort to earn something deeper. The depressing thing is that they’re totally right — if you’re the person who only watches wrestling on a whim, guess what? How you think and feel and react to the show is just important as how anyone else does it. You’re who they’re writing the show for, after all.
The issue is that The Rock is stupid. He’s the WWE Universe. He’s a guy who barely watches wrestling, then shows up to the wrestling show thinking he knows everything, and if you disagree with him, it’s because you think you’re better than him, and you’re wrong! He doesn’t listen. He doesn’t pay attention. He’s the guy who thought up a joke about CM Punk wanting ice cream bars, but didn’t process what Punk said 5 minutes earlier about how he never wanted them, and that people were too fat for them anyway. He’s just gonna run with that joke anyway. He’s the guy who says CM Punk didn’t turn his back on the people, the people turned their back on CM Punk … the same people who cheered Punk for MONTHS after his heel turn, to the point that he had to explicitly hit them with YOU PEOPLE speeches on the regular until they stopped. He’s the guy who hears a contextual quote from ‘The Prodigal Son’ and thinks it’s about boxing and God, because he was up at 4 AM to do box jumps, not read books.
The babytalk adds to the stupidity. CM Punk isn’t calling him “THE LATE ONE” because he doesn’t show up enough, or calling him “THE CROCK” because he sucks, he’s hitting him with facts and information. Emotions. Thoughts. Accusations. Rock’s response, instead of acting like a human being, is to call him names. And guess what? They aren’t even names. They’re just words. He called him COOKIEPUSS because he mentioned ice cream three times a year and a half ago. He says he doesn’t have nuts. Then he just attacks him, because of course he does. The guy who has been backstage all night covering himself with oil gets verbally run down by the guy who BEAT RYBACK IN A TLC MATCH like 20 minutes earlier because … well, he’s stupid. He lashes out. He’s the WWE Universe. He doesn’t know how to handle himself like a f**king grown-up. It’s just a 40-year old man making ice cream truck jokes.
And that doesn’t even begin to get into the bubble Rock lives in. He’s tall and handsome and he was popular when wrestling was popular, so it’s okay that he’s talking baby talk and not paying attention, because it entertained you. He can take 20 minutes to say 5 minutes of material because he’s got to stall for time to remember it (LET THE ROCK TELL YOU THIS, THE ROCK WILL TELL YOU THIS, LET HIM TELL YOU THIS, not to mention all the times he just repeats what he said for emphasis to fill in the silence) and it’s a “great promo,” not because it was, but because it was The Rock. It’s sad the way he’s never challenged to try harder at a job he barely wants, made even worse by the fact that he’s not across the ring from cornball John Cena, failed husband and football star, he’s in there with a guy who was curtain jerking with BJ Whitmer and busting his ass to be somebody the last time Rock was a regular. A guy who is, for all intents and purposes, our generation’s definition of what wrestling is. The indy guy who made it, but is so sick of our shit he’ll disown every stepping stone he used to get here. Effort versus laziness. Part-time versus all the time. Passion versus total apathy. Rock’s passion for wrestling is just as real as Punk’s concern for Tyson Kidd, and just as much a part of a character.
So laugh when he says Cookiepuss, if that’s what makes you laugh. You and me are very different people. And it’s all equal, because of course it is.
Best: How I Felt After Raw, And How I’m Still Feeling
Right or wrong, feeling enraged and indignant like this feels a hell of a lot better than turning off the show because somebody’s dropping turds on his opponents, that’s for sure.
Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Night
Redshirt
Dear WWE,
You should always listen to your talent’s doctor.
Sincerely,
Robert Griffin III
Tobogganing Bear
Ouch, they made Drew into the Murderface of 3MB.
Alex *
“At the Royal Rumble, it will truly be: Every pants for themselves.”
-Randy Orton
Lobster Mobster and Big_Heat_34
What’s the countdown for Cody Rhodes becoming a cop?
Car Ram- Rhodes?
Godamilk
I wish the Manger Babies would accompany Santino to ringside
Podolski’s Left Rocket
Does this look like a man who had ALL he could eat?
fsu55, regarding Gruden in the Raw crowd:
“Son, this guy right here, now he’s disrespected. Let me tell ya, when you’ve been the champ for FOUR HUNDRED DAYS, and you’re still on the middle of the card, let me tell ya, it’s not easy to be champion in WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT. But let me tell ya, this guy, THIS GUY, this hungry fella, I mean LOOK AT this guy. This guy, let me tell ya, he’s hungry. Shoot, I’M hungry.! Haha! Boy, let me tell ya…”
LBCS
“Whoops my bad”- The Undertaker.
shabbydude
That was a beautiful tragedy. One of those few, precious, glorious times when wrestling goes from guilty pleasure to genuine art. Punk just wrote us a fitting eulogy for his time as champion.
One man, alone, shining brightly as hell descends all around him.
I fear the many dark days to come.
See you guys next week.
