Moves Like Swagger

Lots of potential... (from WWE)

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

I didn't realize it until today, but I haven't blogged in nearly week. For those of you who read this regularly, I apologize for the lack of content. This has been a busy month as I've kept up more with the YouTube channel and the Video a Day in the Month of May challenge that I put on myself.

Anyway, enough of that, let's talk wrestling. I was really disappointed Sunday night that Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler came up short in their bid for the WWE tag team titles. The lose bothered me for two reasons, as I had them picked in the From the Rafters Radio PPV pick contest. But more importantly I think it's a sign that a talented duo is being misused by the WWE.

Ideally, I'd like to see Dolph and Jack on their own, pursuing singles titles, but let's face it, the title situations are crowded and the tag team division is less than stellar. I think these two former world champions work well together and bring something to the fledgling division. I just can not buy into Kofi Kingston and R-Truth as a tag team, let alone as the tag team champions. This is not a knock against either man, as I enjoy them as singles competitors. Here's to hoping that Epico and Primo get back into contention now that they're a part of AW.

Kofi dominates (WWE)

But back to the subject at hand, I still don't understand why Swagger and Ziggler seem to be enhancement talent these days. Swagger is probably the fastest falling former World champion and Ziggler is that guy who is so good, the company just doesn't seem to know what to do with him. He makes his opponents look good, so maybe that's why he seems to be stuck in this current mode. No matter the reason, here's to hoping the second half of 2012 is better for Ziggler and Swagger whether they continue on as a team or pursue singles careers.

Over the Limit Thoughts

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents

I had the fortune of watching Over the Limit at the I/O West theatre on Hollywood Blvd. This was the first pay per view they screened in the venue and based on the crowd size they announced they would be showing No Way Out next month. In addition, “Kizarny” will be teaching a class on physical improv next month and John Morrison will be appearing at one of the Improv’s shows in June.

Overall, I thought Over the Limit was a very satisfactory show until the main event. The tag team title match was better than I expected. The Diva’s title match was probably one of the best Divas matches in the past year. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan put on an early match of the year candidate. Along with a good Christian vs. Cody Rhodes match, a 4-way title match that had a good ending sequence and an appearance of Ryback, there was a lot to like on the show.

Then there was the main event. Had the Battle of the John’s been anywhere on the show other than the main event the match would have been rather inoffensive. However, as the main event, it was a crowd deflating fifteen minutes. The ending of the match was a foregone conclusion six days ago and as predicted, The Big Show got involved to help Johnny Ace win the match. I’m guessing this will lead to a Cena/Show match at No Way Out.

Even though the show was a solid thumbs up, there were a few questions I would like answered. I think we need a new weekly segment around here called wrestling with logic.

*Kevin and I have already questioned the way Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan, how after losing two consecutive pay per view title matches, simply moved over to the other brand and got inserted into title matches.

*While everyone expected Big Show to get involved in the main event, his involvement was kind of head scratching. Johnny L. went through the crowd and looked to be trying to get out of the arena only to be brought back in by the Big Show. Big Show brought Johnny into the ring, gave him to Cena, then when Cena went for the Attitude Adjustment Big Show punched Cena in the face. My theory is Johnny and Show had the plan in place for Johnny to come get Show. That I get. However, what would have happened if Cena hadn’t toyed with Johnny and pinned him quickly? Since show isn’t a WWE employee why didn’t security stop him from 1)putting his hands on Johnny and 2)getting into the ring?

*The show opening battle royale came down to the final three of David Otunga, The Miz and the returning Christian. Six weeks ago these three Superstars were supposed to be on Team Johnny at Wrestlemania. Drew McIntyre replaced Christian due to a lingering injury. Now, Christian is back and he’s apparently a face. Why? What happened in the last six weeks?

The only real complaint, other than the placement of the Cena match, is Over the Limit had a battle royale, Christian/Cody Rhodes, Brodus Clay/Miz, and Hunico/Ryback matches added either unannounced or announced right before the show. WWE really needs to stop treating pay per views as one or two match shows and start building and promoting full cards before the day of the show.

Do you have any answers to my questions? Are you excited for more People Power? Will Tyler Reks and Curt Hawkins trend on Twitter during Raw? Share your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter.

Gone, But Not Forgotten: "Macho Man" Randy Savage

By Kevin Hunsperger 
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

 Earlier this week marked the 10 year anniversary of the death of British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith. It's hard to believe so much time has passed. Today (May 20th) we mark the one year anniversary of "Macho Man" Randy Savage's passing. Both men were two of my favorites growing up, and I'm sad that they're not here anymore.

 I was in high school when Savage won the WWF title the first time around. Even though I was a fan of his, I was pulling for Bam Bam Bigelow (RIP) to win the Wrestlemania IV title tournament. But in the end, it made sense to go with Macho Man as he carried the torch and lead the company in Hulk Hogan's brief absence.

 I always enjoyed Savage's unique voice, as I will still break into a "dig it!" or "Ooooh yeah!" every now and then. I also like his colorful ring attire, music, and overall attitude in and out of the ring.  Heel Macho Man was always more enjoyable for me, as I thought the face Savage was a bit out of character for him.

In the year since his death, I've gained a new appreciation for Randy Savage. I was disappointed, but not surprised that the WWE didn't induct him into the Hall of Fame this year. I do hope his time comes soon, as he truly deserves. Take a moment today to remember the Macho Man and his family. May he continue to rest in peace.

Hogan Knows Best?

Hulk & Brooke

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

It's been announced that Brooke Hogan is the latest hire by Impact Wrestling.  She'll be the Executive in Charge of the Knockouts.  I don't want to be too critical, because I know this is all a part of the storytelling process, but first of all, what does that mean?  Is Hulk Hogan's oldest child going to be the "GM" of women's wrestling in TNA?  I don't get the title.

Secondly, I don't get the reasoning for putting her in this position. I don't think an "executive" should be someone who has NO EXPERIENCE in the field that they are overseeing.  Yes, being the child of a wrestler makes you closer to the business, but does it make you an authority?  Has Brooke ever taken a bump?

I realize I may be offering too much criticism here because this angle involves the Hogan family.  Some have argued that Vince McMahon, Dusty Rhodes, Verne Gagne, and Fritz Von Erich all hired their kids, so why not Hulk?  I guess I can't argue that point too much, as I don't remember the skill level that the second and third generation stars had at the time of their hires.  But I do know that

Vince for example had Shane and Stephanie doing grunt work before they landed TV roles and executive jobs.  Vince himself toiled for his father before he was an commentator and eventual owner of the WWF/WWE.  The Von Erich boys were natural high school and college athletes, it made sense that they'd transition into wrestling.  And before the gender bias is thrown out there, I'd be critical of this decision if it were Nick Hogan hired to the position.

The McMahon Family

I have no problem with Brooke getting a break and starting in the business.  But why not start off at a lower rung on the ladder.  Make her a backstage interviewer or I'd even be more accepting of a role as a valet.  I don't get the whole "executive" thing.  Part of the problem admittedly may be that I don't keep up with Impact like I should.  This could be just some goofy storyline that will come to pass.  Since I'm on a rant though, it kind of reminds me of the Garrett Bischoff situation.

I know nepotism exists in wrestling and all walks of life.  In some cases it's worked out really well.  But many times it ends up with an unqualified or less talented performer taking a spot from someone who truly deserves to be there.

On a positive TNA note though, I do applaud their decision to test the market for a live show.  This COULD be a first step in helping bolster sagging ratings.  The company has been around for a decade now, it's time to show some growth.  While I won't be watching the show (it's on opposite our radio show From the Rafters Radio), I do hope that it is a success.  The WWE seriously needs some competition and fans deserve another alternative.

Your thoughts?  Share them here or join us on Facebook.

Indy Stars Rise to the Top

By Kevin Hunsperger @kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

All American Pro Wrestling returns to the Black Diamond Harley Davidson Warehouse in Marion, Illinois for another taping of Collision.  The May 19th show (no Kane will not be there) has several great local and regional indy talent already booked.

Hatton (who we saw on WWE Extreme Rules against Ryback) will be on the card.  He takes on Mike Sydal (the younger brother of WWE star Evan Bourne).  These two have been tag team partners before and now will go one on one.  It's fair to say each man is quickly climbing the ladder of success in the independent ranks.  Hatton of course recently made his WWE pay per view debut.  Sydal has made appearances in Ring of Honor and other promotions around the country.

Indy star Ricochet makes his debut with the company.  He's made quite a name for himself around the country and the world.  "The Future of Flight" has been wrestling for Dragon Gate USA and has agreed to team with Mark Sterling (his regular partner Jeremy Wyatt is on the mend after suffering a broken leg).  That duo will face Minor Threat, Ace Hawkins (who also wrestled at WWE Extreme Rules as "Aaron Relic") and Brandon Espinosa.  This match will determine the number one contenders to the tag team championship, which is currently held by Team Overkill (Matt Cage & Christian Rose).

But that's not all, and we may actually have new champs for the winner of that match to face.  Team Overkill will defend against Team Triple X.  Jay Spade and Joey O'Riley are best friends and two of AAPW's best high flyers.  Can their aerial assault trump the mind games of Cage and Rose?  Should be an outstanding match.

All your other AAPW favorites will be a part of the action too.  So join us.  Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for kids.  Veterans get in free.  See you there Saturday night.  Doors open at 6, belltime is 7 p.m.  Be there!  If you don't live in the area, watch Collision and All Access on the AAPW YouTube channel.

Follow the Leader

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

Last Thursday, TNA/IMPACT wrestling announced they had signed King Mo to a dual contract along with Bellator Fighting, a mixed martial arts company. To be honest, I don’t know anything about Bellator and I know even less about King Mo. When I read the news about the signing, I thought TNA was reforming Men on a Mission. I had never heard of King Mo before so the news didn’t mean anything to me. After realizing King Mabel, Mo and Oscar wouldn’t be coming into TNA, I shook my head and realized this was once again a case of TNA, intentionally or not, copying WWE.

A month ago WWE brings in Brock Lesnar fresh of a UFC run and now TNA is bringing in a “star” MMA fighter. I use the quotations around star because as I said, I don’t know who Mo is and don’t know what type of star power he has in the MMA universe. Because the deal is a joint venture with Bellator, maybe this would be beneficial to TNA and give them some positive cross-promotional publicity.

King Mo

Whether this does lead into some new viewers or not, as I mentioned, the first perception is TNA is playing copy what WWE is doing. As we’ve written about several times here, one of the biggest problems TNA has had over the last ten years is the inability to forge their own identity. I don’t know if anyone within the company considered how bringing in King Mo after WWE brought in Brock Lesnar would look to the casual fans. Nor do I know how King Mo will be used so I may be putting the horse before the cart. Though, with the way the news of the signing was presented, I’m guessing King Mo will actually be wrestling and not just a Pac-Man Jones type of performer who stands on the apron, never wrestles and wins a title.

What’s your take? Did you think it was TNA trying to be like WWE or do I look too deep into everything? Share your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter.

ROH: Up a Paddle without a Stream

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents

Ring of Honor has been doing Internet Pay Per Views for a couple of years now. Until recently, as far as I can recall, they have gone off without a hitch. Over Wrestlemania weekend the two ROH Ippvs had some technical difficulties with the streams going down during the show. Because of the technical issues with the shows, ROH decided to end their partnership with Go Fight Live and bring all online streaming capabilities in house.

The first show to try the new streaming set up was Saturday night’s “Border Wars” headlined by the ROH title match between Davey Richards and Kevin Steen. This was a title match that had been building for six months and a match a lot of people were looking forward to seeing. Unfortunately, by the sounds of it, the only people who got to see it were the fans in the arena.

Prior to Saturday, ROH tested the new on-site streaming on Wednesday by offering fans a free match of CM Punk vs. Bryan Danielson. The number of viewers crashed the system. This should have been a huge red flag given the Ippv was only three days away. After the crash, ROH issued the following statement.

ROH Fans - We apologize for the difficulties in watching the Free Punk Vs Bryan Video as we did not anticipate the exorbitant amount of fans trying to watch it all at once.

For those that missed it, we will leave it up through the weekend as well as post it to YouTube.

Rest assured, this was due to our media server not handling the load that was created by this free video. For our iPPV this weekend, we will be using a highly regarded Content Delivery Network (CDN) to prevent anything like this from happening.

With ROH’s guarantee that there would be no crashing of their live stream, I ordered the PPV on Saturday afternoon hoping to do a review for my123cents. I ordered the show around 3:45 and at 4:20 went back to ROH’s website to prepare for the show. Since I’m not a regular visitor to the ROH website, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to access the page the where the show was streaming. After finding the page, I was informed I needed to log in to access the Ippv. That’s when the problem started.

For the next 45 minutes, I tried to log in and repeatedly got a “that function is unavailable at this time. Try again later” message. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong so I went to Twitter to see what other people were saying about the show and found out about 98% of everyone who ordered the show couldn’t watch it. I finally gave up and decided to request a refund from ROH. At the time, ROH had not made a statement regarding the issues with the stream.

Later in the evening, ROH did issue this statement:

Dear Fans,
Again we are extremely frustrated by the ippv result tonight and offer our deepest apologies.
Since Showdown in the Sun, we have been working endlessly to provide an optimal ppv experience which we believe we have achieved.
For our website, we increased our server memory x3 and doubled its processing power. Still, it seems that our architecture could not handle the excessive user logins and we are left with a great stream that our fans can not see.
If a refund is demanded, it WILL be given. Otherwise we would like to offer full retention of the replay for Border Wars as well as FREE access to the Best in the World PPV on June 24th for anyone who ordered Border Wars tonight. This will also include retention of the Best in the World PPV in your myPPV accounts.
We WILL get this right no matter what it takes in time for Best in the World.

While I appreciate ROH making good with offering the next Ippv for free to fans who purchased “Border Wars,” I think it’s a little too late. After three consecutive shows with technical issues, will fans want to take the chance on another show? I have admitted to not being a big ROH fan so maybe I’m in the minority, but I don’t think I’m going to clear my calendar to be free the night “Best in the World” takes place.

As the saying goes, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. What are your thoughts? Will you be more or less hesitant to order future ROH Ippvs, or Ippvs from any company based on the technical issues of the last few shows? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page or send us a Tweet.

For the record, Evolve had two Ippvs over the weekend and CZW had one on Saturday night. I have heard no complaints from those shows due to technical issues. This seems to be a ROH only occurrence.