What's Going Down . . . Part Two
Here's part two . . .
NEW JAPAN HAS drawn sell out crowds and its performers have produced numerous breathtaking matches in this year’s G1 Climax tournament which ends on Sunday at the Seibu Dome. Tanahashi vs. Honma (July 21), Nakamura vs. Shibata (July 21), Okada vs. Styles (July 21), Naito vs. Styles (July 26), Tanahashi vs. Shibata (July 26), Nakamura vs. Ishii (August 1) and Tanahashi vs. Nakamura (August 3) are just some of the fabulous scraps which have gone down in this year’s tourney. New Japan maintains its rep as the number one company in the world for in-ring action. I am confident that Sunday’s show will live up to what are extremely high expectations. Shinsuke Nakamura will battle fellow CHAOS member Kazuchika Okada in the G1 final . . .
What has happened to Cesaro? No longer a Paul Heyman guy — and there was neither a televised split nor a proper explanation for the discontinuation of their business relationship — Cesaro has lost to John Cena and even Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler over the last few weeks. I sense a babyface turn is imminent for Cesaro — but I’m not in the least bit excited about it. The moment has passed, and these defeats are restricting his potential as a face, once the turn has occurred. WWE should have flipped Cesaro immediately after WrestleMania XXX when he was piping-hot. His prolonged heel run and association with Heyman was a colossal setback . . .
Fergal Devitt signed with WWE last month, as expected. There is no way anyone with options would join TNA in summer 2014 . . . Roman Reigns is the man of the hour in WWE. I see a bright future for him between January and April 2015. Some don’t think Reigns has all the qualifications to headline solo, but I think Reigns is getting there: he’s shown improvement across the board, and is growing in popularity. Best of all, Reigns has mastered one of the most overlooked aspects of a pro wrestler’s performance: the crowd-leading interaction pose or signal before he executes a signature move . . .
Impact has generally been an entertaining programme over the last month. Entertaining, but in no way constructive: TNA is going nowhere new with all these gimmick matches, ECW recycling and WWE veterans/rejects, coupled with the biweekly swerve-turn . . . Another point about TNA. The company spent more than two months trying to persuade its fan base that Eric Young was World title material, only to prove, in the course of a couple of episodes of Impact from June-July, that he actually wasn’t. Young’s loss to Lashley in their rematch on the July 3 Impact was so convincing, I was dumbstruck. Who laid that out? Why was Young beaten so easily? A competitive match, won by Lashley, would have preserved Young, while enhancing Lashley. Instead, it appeared that Lashley defeated a wrestler who was not in his league, which neither protected Young nor did a great deal for Lashley. What I don’t understand is why Dixie Carter, after all these years, cannot spot these blindingly obvious blunders that her staff make. Why can she see it? . . .
Cody Runnels’ Stardust character needs the axe. As one reader pointed out to me, Goldust’s appeal was his uniqueness: there was no one else like him on the WWE roster. Now as Cody stares vacantly towards the ceiling and talks in riddles as Stardust, Goldust’s appeal has been diluted. Someone else noted that Stardust bears a resemblance to Robbie Williams in the Let Me Entertain You video. That someone would compare you to Robbie Williams has to be reason enough to change your image. I can’t stick Williams . . .
Does everyone in WWE vote Republican? Of course not; they just have to espouse Vince McMahon’s political beliefs because he owns the company. Did you catch Zeb Colter’s halfhearted endorsement of President Obama on the July 14 Raw? You cannot have missed all the digs at Obama by the commentators . . . Alberto Del Rio was fired by WWE yesterday, due to an “altercation with an employee”, according to a statement on wwe.com. (Does employee mean non-wrestler? Wrestlers are contractors, not employees. I’m sure more details will be revealed shortly.) I won’t miss Del Rio in WWE, I have to say. I thought he was a competent performer, but he peaked more than two years ago, and was going through the motions, likely because he recognised he would never be pushed to the top of the card again. For Del Rio, there could be no recovery from the decisive beating he received from John Cena in their terrifically tedious feud from October-November 2013. Cena castrated him . . .
C.M. Punk did a commendable job as red carpet co-host at The Alternative Press Music Awards on July 21 in Cleveland, Ohio. He gave a rousing introduction for Billy Corgan, who was the recipient of the Vanguard award. When quizzed about the possible renewal of his career in the “squared circle”, Punk said that he would “never ever, never ever, ever” wrestle again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K5F6xG-Rbs. He was quoting a line from the chorus of that Taylor Swift number. What a larf. Do I think Punk will wrestle again? Yes. He’s only 35. Someone will tempt him to return to the ring with a sizeable money offer and an interesting scenario six months, a year or 18 months from now, I’m sure of it. On the subject of Punk, I believe the rumours that WWE will sue Phil Brooks for breach of contract are baseless. He did not wrestle anywhere else while he was under contract, and has expressed no desire to wrestle again now his contract has expired. I fail to see how a lawsuit would stand up in court, and it would be a P.R. disaster for WWE . . .
Can we expect to see a John Cena vs. Rusev feud, post-SummerSlam? Cena will need something to do, once Brock Lesnar vacates the screen again. It does feel like Rusev is being elevated, so Cena can knock him down, as he has done with a myriad up-and-comers. I can already hear Cena’s witless jokes at Lana and Rusev’s expense, and visualise the man who can never submit powering out of the Accolade . . . Ric Flair was responsible for inflicting that bruise and nasty hardway cut to Bray Wyatt’s left eye. At Battleground, eight days after Flair threw the potato at WWE’s MSG house show on July 12, Wyatt’s eye was still heavily blackened, and the cut had yet to heal . . .
Looks like WWE’s developmental decision-makers have tired of Mojo Rawley. He lost cleanly by pinfall to Tyler Breeze in 33 seconds on the July 24 NXT. What a burial. In other happenings of note from the July 24 NXT, fans chanted, “Boring!” and burst into a Mexican wave during Charlotte’s NXT women’s title defence against Summer Rae (Charlotte retained), and commentator Renee Young said the following about Vaudevillain Simon Gotch: “He’s actually not allowed in England for attempting to capture the Loch Ness Monster, but instead he got Giant Haystacks.” That must have been something William Regal suggested she say; Renee clearly had no idea what she was talking about as she spoke those words. If she had, the gal would have substituted “Scotland” for “England” . . .
WWE has a lot of faith in the Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella story line: it’s been featured heavily on Raw the last two weeks. I’m sure they’ll meticulously rehearse the match beforehand, and that WWE will tack on several diversions to virtually guarantee that the scrap will succeed at SummerSlam . . . Can you believe WWE has released timekeeper Mark Yeaton? Mark Yeaton! He had been responsible for ensuring that everything ran on time at WWF/WWE television tapings and pay-per-views for three decades -- and they’ve cut him as well. Truly, no one is safe in WWE. Sounds like a line from a horror movie poster.
By Fin Martin.