Raw 5-16

The wrestling world had a pretty darn good week. Raw wasn't fantastic or anything. Smackdown and Impact Wrestling/TNA whatever they want to be called was solid episodes. Smackdown focused on bringing some good in ring action. Daniel Bryan and Sin Cara was the best match on television and I would love to see them wrestle, er entertain in a pay per view rematch for about 40 minutes. I did mention TNA and they did a nice job Thursday and at Sacrifice. Raw must serve a purpose for the under card as the main event has been announced for Over the Limit.

Before heading down the WWE trail and write about Raw, I need to focus on TNA. I actually liked what they are doing right now. Yes, me the so called "WWE Homer" is praising TNA. I'm not a big fan of certain things. I would like to kick Flair and Hogan off television and take Bischoff with them. Foley is back but that's not important either. The changing of TNA to Impact Wrestling on Thursday is a decent move. My only problem is if you are going to switch your brand name, you better be certain you are well prepared. They weren't. I love the slogan 'where wrestling matters.' Others are going to piss all over since it was TNA that came up with it. However, I am the one who yells and screams in this blog about wanting more wrestling. If TNA is for real and focuses a lot more on wrestling, I will be happy to tune in every Thursday evening to Spike TV. Over the past few months, the Jeff Jarrett Kurt Angle saga has taken several turns. Most of them coming in losses for Angle. Thursday, Chyna returning to wrestling and getting involved was dare I say brilliant. I'm not joking. WWE has Kharma who is making the biggest push a Diva has ever had. TNA responds with a woman who has not been seen on pro wrestling television in years. Angle finally got over at Sacrifice with the help of Chyna. The story should end now and Angle can move on to bigger fish. I sure hope Chyna sticks around as well.
The other guy I stay interested in with TNA is Misterrrrr Anderson....Anderson. TNA did a wonderful job pissing me off by keeping Anderson down. I text my buddy Larry from ShowStoppers (heard every Wednesday on BBSD) during the battle royal and I said Bubba Ray will win. He said Anderson and I'm glad I was wrong. Anderson has the most breakout star potential in TNA. His character is fantastic, although asshole is probably not the best word for merchandise. Ken has gotten better in ring ability too. He may never got the shot at WWE for many reasons, injuries, drug policy and politics. Anderson has a chance to win the title again and TNA should pull the trigger on a long title run. Let's see Mr. Potential run with the ball for a while.

The opening promo was way to long and pretty pointless. Super Cena with the same crap about fear I've heard 7500 times before. I give credit to Riley for giving a decent promo and working the crowd with cheap heat. I'm just sick of Raw being all about Super Cena and Miz for the WWE title. We've seen it too long. At least on Smackdown, Orton and Christian is new and fresh. They will have a better wrestling match at Over the Limit too. Raw should focus on some new talent. I liked what Bret Hart tweeted last week about McIntyre being thrown on Superstars was a mistake. I couldn't agree more. Drew is solid all the way around and being drafted to Raw might have been a mistake when he can't make it on the damn show. He was used every week on Smackdown.

I couldn't believe Punk dismantled the U.S. champion so quickly. I would love to see a long feud with those two. Well hell I would be happy with any feud for the U.S. title. Kofi hasn't done squat since heading to Raw. WWE might know how to push a WWE title match but they've forgotten all about the important under card matches. In the 90's, the intercontinental matches were better than most of the WWE title matches. Mr. Perfect, Bret Hart, Jake the Snake, Piper and many more sold shows because of their matches not the main event. WCW was a prime example when they had their Cruiserweight division. Now the WWE focuses on one story and can't figure out how to put anything else together. It is such a waste. Then they wonder around scratching their ass when they say they don't have new stars.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the way the WWE has used Kharma. The live crowds are even giving a huge pop every time she comes down. She feels like an event every moment she is on television. I have no clue where it goes with Kelly Kelly and I don't give a crap. I just want to see more Kharma. She doesn't need to be a heel or face just DESTROY!

Rey is much better on the stick then people give him credit for. He's really not that bad. I've sure heard a lot worse. I don't like him speaking in Spanish because I don't understand it. I understand why he does it for obvious reasons. I think I've whined about showcasing new talent and keeping things fresh. As I typed that, Del Rio and Rey were talking. We've seen this as well. WWE needs to book Del Rio, Rey and Truth for the number 1 contender to Super Cena's WWE title. That way Raw won't open with a 20 minute promo about who deserves a shot. I shouldn't complain to much since Del Rio and Rey was a solid effort in the ring. R-Truth looked a lot like The Pope from TNA with the do-rag on. Truth is getting a bigger response than ever before so at least something positive is coming out of his heel turn. I just can't understand half the stuff Rey or Truth says. The poor people typing the closed caption with ???? during that entire segment.

Cole and Lawler are going to battle in a kiss my foot match is not a bad idea. Michael Cole made the impossible happen, Texans rooting for a Sooner. People wanted to see Swagger turn on Cole. I'm all for Swagger face turn. He's got nothing else going on and Raw seems to be full of heels. You could easily turn Swagger and have him face Del Rio, Miz, McIntyre or Punk. Instead, the WWE probably teased us to hose us over at Over the Limit. I'm already passed my limit on Cole and Lawler matches. This needs to end on Sunday!

Speaking of Sunday's Over the Limit, I will be blogging my ppv picks Thursday morning for the entire wrestling world to see. They usually suck but I'll continue to bring them to you. The entire card seems pretty damn boring. Randy Orton and Christian will be the best match but we know the finish. Orton will win and Christian will turn heel. Raw announced an actual tag team championship match for OTL like it matters. McGillicuty needs to be repackaged so he can look like his dad Mr. Perfect. He's a solid in ring promo but his look and finisher is weak. A running neckbreaker is not a finisher. WWE neglects his past which is mistake.

Once again Zach Ryder gets shown on WWE TV for less than 15 seconds. Yet another missed opportunity as Ryder continues to gain more momentum on Twitter and Youtube. I figured Miz would choose a gauntlet match. I was wrong. Swagger went from a potential face turn to facing the most over man in WWE. I guess it does help Swagger get passed the sidekick role. Swagger had a sweet bump into the chair. That was about the only thing I enjoyed out of their match. Cena hit a record 7 shoulder tackles so that's something to gloat about. Actually Swagger wasn't bad at all. If that were a lead pipe, it sure bounced like it was rubber on the mat. Raw ends with Super Cena on top, no surprise there.

Raw was boring. The overall show didn't bring anything to the table. Over the Limit is a filler pay per view. Cena and Miz in the main event is not getting me to purchase the show. I love Orton and Christian but Christian has about as much chance as I have of winning the lottery. WWE is on cruise control and not giving us anything special during these summer months. They won't for several months. SAVE US Y2J! I know you need more wrestling and you can find that on BBSD with Showstoppers and our other blogger Justin. I'll come back for my Over the Limit picks which might be my shortest blog in history. Stunners for everyone.

J Call

State of the Wrestling World Address

Thank you for joining me. Ladies and Gentlemen, this has been a depressing time for the wrestling world. Oh, you haven't notice. You haven't noticed because your a mark. You watch, you pick the most boring and predictable thing and then wrestling does it so you look like a genius. Now, you think you know wrestling because you get a few picks right. I'm hear to tell you, you are right. You know the boring mundane wrestling we have seen in recent years. I know a different wrestling time. A time where wrestling was shocking, unpredictable and when some simpleton on the Internet wouldn't pick 19 out of 20 pay per view picks. Congratulations if you had Orton winning the WWE title at Night of Champions, so did 2 million other wrestling fans, except me. The WWE is stale with writing and it's time for a new revolution.

The only thing going for them is Taker and Kane. Finally someone is taking it to the Deadman. He's been a force and this story has shown weakness, real weakness. It's fresh and exciting, the way wrestling is suppose to be. It's a simple story, one man hates the other for certain reasons, in this case jealousy, and we watch it unfold. Kane may have won but that's the brilliant part. Fans always believe Taker is going to win and a turn has been made. We need more simple stories. Dolph and Kofi, Miz and Bryan and Taker and Kane are the only real one on one feuds. Easy to set up and easy to execute.

The E should look at what the Internet says. They believe they know everything the writers are thinking before they do it. Guess what? Most of the time, they are right. It's boring. Where the hell is the fun when 200,000 people tell you what's going to happen and end up being correct. The Internet ruined 3/4ths of what made wrestling so good. Why was the attitude era so cool? You didn't have 1.5 million wrestling sites telling you, Austin is going to drive a Zamboni through the arena tonight on Raw. The Attitude era hit at the perfect time, before the Internet boom hit. Go back and watch Seinfeld, one of the greatest shows ever, and you'll find it doesn't hold up since a cell phone and modern technology would kill half their problems. Well the Internet has brought on big problems to wrestling. How can we fix it?

In the past three years, the biggest surprise was Cena winning the '08 Royal Rumble when no one knew he was coming. The truth is the problem can be solved with better writing and ALL LIVE SHOWS! The E has thousands of employees, a group of them could be dedicated to searching for "rumors" and how the Internet is thinking. I'm not saying knee jerk reaction that causes stories to be come more clustered, then it'd be TNA, or if one person says Miz won't cash in and you switch it. However, when the majority is screaming we know what you're going to do, then change it. Make it a subtle change. As far as the writing, that's easy. The tag division is a mess. NOC, they crowned new tag champs and no one cares. No build, nothing, just through something together. Lazy! The tag titles are on both shows and you can't provide a story. You're fired. The other thing I mentioned put a smile on your face, all live shows. Smackdown each week should be live as should TNA Impact. You know why fans feel Smackdown is the "B" show even though it has better writing and stories going for it? It's taped. We know the entire show before it airs. I know the WWE has house shows on Friday night to make more money. I also know Smack would see a ratings increase if it were to go live.

I've heard and read people say, "wrestling should have an off season." No freaking way! Wrestling is written out to continue and not have a finale, take 2 months off and come back. I purpose having only 8 pay per views not 12 or 14 a year. Pay per views should feel special and exciting. They have beaten gimmick matches to death when you try and spice up 12 shows. The Rumble, Mania and Summerslam are irreplaceable. The ones after each of them are not which is why we should throw them out. Again, the WWE is screaming, taking away 3 pay per views and we lose more profit. Not necessarily and I said we are going to eliminate 4. I'd eliminate the ones after those three I previously mentioned and the one before the Rumble. Now, you can go out and sell those 4 shows as a package to a network. You have a big time program in February, May, July and December. A national network, I was going to say NBC but I think they had enough fun with the Saturday night Main Event debacle, would want 4 big events. Even USA would probably fork out the money for those shows if you bill them just like a pay per view. If you can remember them, think WCW Clash of Champions. TBS carried those and they had pay per view like quality and were free. All of these shows would be on a Sunday night starting at 7pm and on for three hours. You reward fans with special free shows and in return they buy an extra pay per view or two.

Less pay per views, better stories, a few free shows that are big shows and all shows are live sounds like a wrestling world I want to live in. See, if this were a politician, he'd tell you what the problems are and no solutions. He would bitch and moan about how this is bad and that is bad but never give any solutions to the problems. I'm tired of hearing people complain about wrestling but never giving a solution or they simply say make the tag team division important. The question is how? I've given you several ways wrestling could be big again. I'm a man of action, a man of the people and with resolutions. The wrestling world needs a change and I'll lead you to a new decade. One where shock and awe returns and stale is thrown out like moldy bread. Join me, stand up and let your opinion be heard. Until this time comes, and it will, we are stuck with the same old boring wrestling.

J Call