Opinion #7 - CM Punk

I stopped watching professional wrestling for a few years when I was younger. On holiday at my grandparents’ house in Pakistan, in the summer of 2006, I got attached to it once more. The second night there, it was a Monday and I found all my cousins and their cousins gathering in my grandparents’ living room. We had the biggest room on the street, see, and the biggest television and the best air conditioning. Everyone sat down to watch Monday Night Raw. On Saturday, WWE Experience would air. The following evening would have WWE Heat. On Tuesday, we would watch Smackdown. The next two days would air Bottomline and Afterburn.

On Fridays, we had ECW on. It would start at 10pm and finish at midnight. We’d just pray the electricity wouldn’t go out because replays would be the following morning! I had never watched ECW before. In terms of production value, it was nowhere near as good as Raw and Smackdown but I was intrigued by it. I kept hearing about how hardcore it was so I thought to give it a go. It’s not like I had anything better to do.

So I saw the likes of Sandman, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer... Taz on commentary! And then there was CM Punk. He cut a promo and I was sold. I liked the guy. His look was the first thing that got me and I thought, “Hey, he seems cool”. Then he started talking about being straight-edge and, not going to lie, but that was a benefitting factor. Living in England, it seems like everyone just drinks, smokes, blah blah... That goes against my beliefs so finding someone to relate to even if in only one sense of it, it was great.

From then onwards, I was pro-CM Punk and I hadn’t even seen the guy wrestle yet!

Then I saw his debut TV match against Justin Credible. What bought me? Well, when you think about the traditional wrestler, you think matt-based wrestling, grappling, headlocks, clotheslines, bodyslams, suplexes... With Punk, I saw innovation. He was just cool, okay. His style was different. It was fluid. He’d combine his Muay Thai skills with the standard wrestling. He was interesting. I wondered for ages what that Pepsi tattoo was for! Even when we got SVR ’08 and he was on there, I’d nearly always be CM Punk.

And little me waited for ages for him to win titles. I really wanted him to move up the ranks. I felt like he was too good for ECW. I wanted to see him in front of bigger crowds, with loads of pyro and lights, fighting against John Cena... Mind you, I was a Cena fan at the time...

And it just wasn’t happening.

Then we hit that hazy period in time where I stopped watching regularly. We didn’t have Sky Sports at home and I wasn’t great with the internet... I’d watch segments I could find and if my brother went to a cousin’s or something and saw it, he’d keep me up-to-date and all.

Then I hit this period where I just didn’t care about wrestling. There were two guys I cared about. Their names were Johnny Nitro and CM Punk. Everyone else could go fuck themselves as far as I was concerned. Then Chris Jericho returned and I started watching a bit again. Then Christian came back and I watched a bit more. And then last year, I couldn’t stay away. I caught up on everything. Everything that interested me, that is.

I saw the Straight-Edge Society (though I don’t appreciate the jabs at sXe from faces). I saw the New Nexus. I saw Punk had finally moved up the ranks.

And I’d missed it.

And that sucked.

I was happy to see him on Raw though. I was happy to see how much his character had developed and grown! Compare standard straight-edge Punk being hit on by Kelly Kelly with the Straight-edge Messiah!

Now compare that to the Voice of the Voiceless we currently have the pleasure of seeing on our screens weekly.

A lot happens in six years.

The WWE isn’t how it used to be and that’s worrying. I can’t see them creating new stars so I worried about how far Punk would actually get before WWE completely dropped the ball again.

And now I’m worried for completely the opposite reason.

I worry that they’ll push him too hard all at once. What a slap in the faces of us internet fans that would be, huh?

I don’t want CM Punk to be Cena, Orton or Triple H. He refreshes himself often enough to keep himself relevant and interesting with new gimmicks but that doesn’t mean I want him in the main event forever and I sincerely hope he isn’t. I want him to be used properly. I don’t want him to be ruined.

I’m by no means criticising Punk. With the WWE’s recent work, can you blame me for worrying though?

If a wrestler is to stay relevant, he should move up and down the card so he’s not permanently in the title picture.

Watching Punk’s matches lately, the quality is great, of course but you feel like, “Oh God. What if he develops Moves of Doom?” because I don’t recall a kick-out of a GTS recently... Losing to Truth has given me a bit of hope. The problem is, it wasn’t clean. Losing to Triple H, honestly, was good. We know what HHH’s ego is like and I’d rather that than Punk develop the “undefeatable” persona shining, despite his gimmick. Just because it’s what he says he is, doesn’t mean he has to win... Maybe this is me over-thinking everything.

But seriously, can you blame me for worrying?

What would I do with Punk?

Well, Punk wouldn’t have had this Nash feud. In fact, he wouldn’t have been on TV since July 17th. I’d have him return at Vengeance or Hell In A Cell with his WWE title, suddenly reminding everyone of his existence as he’s been off TV for 3 months. He would return would a stable. He’d have young guys getting pushed. He’d be in the title picture but so would his stablemates. The divas would get more airtime with girls like Natalya and Beth as part of it. There would be carnage at Survivor Series. There would be backlash following it (not the PPV...) up until Wrestlemania. Then things would simmer down with Punk and he’d work lower down on the card whilst his stable-mates get pushed... And then the loop would repeat.

I’m no pro but that sounds better than being glued to the main event, right?

Before anyone gets pissed off, I’m not saying Punk is. Just based on previous decisions by the WWE, I worry they could ruin Punk.

But Punk doesn’t seem like the type who would let them do that.

So thank God for that.

But as I said, CM Punk gives hope for more mainstream professional wrestling. I may not be one of those kids who has been loyally following him since his time on the independent circuit. Heck, I missed half his WWE career so far! I just appreciate the guy a hell of a lot. I’m glad that he’s being repaid for his hard work. I just hope it’s not ruined.

Opinion #6 - Christian

  One thing the “WWE Universe” needs to learn now is that that there are two sides to a wrestler. There is himself, who he is, his background etc. and there is his gimmick, the character he portrays, which is altered and enhanced according to the role he plays in a storyline.

I’m certain everyone is aware of how much I dislike Randy Orton’s character and his booking. Combined with his lack of innovation, I dislike him in general. Not as a person but as a worker. Please take careful note of my use of words, “dislike”, not “hate”.

This brings me to my subject matter: Christian.

Christian is a guy I absolutely adore. There’s just no other way to put it. I have so much respect for this guy, I just can’t comprehend how and why anyone could ever hate him.

I’ve been pissed off with the way he’s been booked. That’s not his fault. The character he plays is a heel. You are supposed to dislike him. That is his purpose and I will admit now whilst his character was pretty fucking annoying lately, I didn’t see him as the heel because of the booking. Anyway, whilst you can dislike his character all you want, you have absolutely no right or grounds to say some of the things I’ve been hearing.

He debuted in 1998 in the WWF as part of a stable called The Brood but Christian is well-known for his time spent as part of a tag team with his real-life best friend Edge, both who aspired to be professional wrestler from a young age and worked to achieve that dream together. Edge and Christian were just… Amazing. The chemistry between those two was perfect, their gimmick was great and honestly, it’s sad they didn’t get to have that final run as a tag team earlier this year.Maybe it could have taught the Creative team what a real tag team is all about.

It was during his run with Edge, that they, along with Jeff and Matt Hardy and the Dudleyz were responsible for elevating the beast that is a Table Ladders and Chairs match. Yeah, no TLC PPV without them. And for those people saying Edge basically carried Christian, think again. Go and watch their match from Wrestlemania 17 at TLC. Does it look like Edge is carrying the match? No. Does Edge do all the talking? No, he sure as hell doesn’t. Their segments were absolute quality, working with guys like Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, Rhino… Always entertaining. I can’t even explain. Compare them to the kind of backstage segments we get today and the contrast in quality is shocking. A gimmick like theirs would be unsuccessful if both guys didn’t have the talent and they wouldn’t have been Tag Team champions seven times. Sure, today you can completely overlook the tag team division because it’s full of crap. Back then, believe it or not, there was actual competition, real tag teams and Edge and Christian obviously worked well enough to be given the titles seven times. Do you think people would remember them today if they hadn’t reeked of awesome?

Christian wants to be Edge? Are you fucking retarded? Christian’s Captain Charisma. That’s enough for us and enough for him. He doesn’t need to be anyone else so you can take your shitty accusations and shove them up your ass.

Never forget the brilliance of that segment.

I feel like people who judge Christian today aren’t even aware of his work in the past. They blindly judge him based on the relationship he has with Edge, which they recently began to portray on WWE TV. Edge isn’t the only person he worked with. Vitamin C, another great tag team he was a part of. Again, the chemistry between him and Jericho was brilliant and they held the tag team titles once before splitting up and feuding. Trish Stratus, another big name Christian worked with as well as Lita. For some reason, those guys get a lot of respect and recognition and Christian always seems to be over-looked and that pisses me off. Those angles wouldn’t exist without him. That brilliant match with Jericho at Wrestlemania 20 with Trish’s heel turn. Christian’s role enabled that to happen.

Then he went to TNA as Christian Cage and he was instantly at the top of the card, still with Tomko, working with AJ Styles as Christian’s Coalition (who were absolute quality with the way AJ would fawn over Christian, haha), Team 3D, Abyss, Jeff Jarrett, Rhino, Alex Shelley… As far as I can see, only three years of his career were spent working with Edge and here we have three years in a whole different promotion. This guy worked on the Independent circuit and earned every good thing that came his way so to look at him so lowly is pathetic.

Watching his return to WWE (to ECW of all brands!), you can hear the enthusiasm from the commentators but the audience isn’t responding half as strongly as it should be! And that’s blatant evidence of how poorly the WWE is doing and the kind of rubbish kids are being fed by them. Then they drop him to the midcard. And then put him in a shitty world title storyline, which has people convinced being with Edge is the only thing that works for him, that he needs to be carried by him, which is absolute rubbish.

I’ve never seen a match where Christian wasn’t working just as well as his opponent, which is evidence of his work ethic and dedication to this sport. Obviously, he’s more about putting on a good show than being a bitch because he’s not the top guy, because he’s not getting the biggest push.

That’s another thing. I’ve never heard a bad thing about him. We all read the dirt sheets, right? Whether we purposefully look for things or whether we just come across them, we hear things about performers, some things true, others false but I’ve never heard anything bad about Christian. And even with fans. Sure everyone has a bad day and might come across as a prick without it necessarily meaning they are one but everything I hear about the guy is positive. Clearly, he doesn’t act like a diva so why would you pretty much bury the guy?

As a face, you can’t not love the guy. And as a heel, the guy’s just brilliant and really pisses you off. A person who can work both characters as well as he can is more than worthy of a lot of recognition but he doesn’t quite seem to get it. I mean, look at Randy Orton, quite possibly the most rubbish babyface ever and terrible on the mic. Compare him to Christian, who possesses the in-ring ability, experience, charisma, adaptability… And you push Orton instead?! That aside, Christian’s character is never utilized to its full potential, which is a huge shame. Looking at earlier years, it’s great to see how well they used him and how they used his Captain Charisma gimmick to its full advantage but now he’s much lower, despite having just won two world titles.

And to top everything off, he has consistently had awesome entrance themes so… :P

But my point is, with everything Christian has done and all the qualities he possesses, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be getting a major push. He’s the twenty-third Triple Crown champion. He’s the Eleventh Grand Slam champion. The “top” two guys, John Cena and Randy Orton aren’t Grand Slam champions and never will be. Why? Because they got immediate pushes rather than solidly building their careers and earning every single one of their titles. In fact, Kane aside (and Triple H, if you want to count him), there are no other active wrestlers who are Grand Slam champions. He’s a much stronger competitor than pretty much everyone else on the roster yet he’s completely overlooked. And I’m really struggling to see any reasons why anyone should hate him.

I love this guy. I think it’s safe to say he is my favourite wrestler. You’re all entitled to your own opinion but there’s no need to hate or to express it in such an offensive manner. I have a friend, who doesn’t think Christian’s all that and whilst I will be all, “LEGASP. U r lame bro” to him, he has his opinion and that’s fine by me.

Any unnecessarily major haters though… Will probably get ripped apart by me. Just so you know.

I went on quite a bit. Some parts may have been repetitive, I realize but Christian’s had such strong moments and there’s so much to say about him, I feel like there’s so much I’ve left unsaid but I could sit here all day, expressing how amazing he is. I’m just going to leave this here though. If you want to share your opinion, good or bad, then by all means go ahead. (:

I love the Evolution of JoMo/Nitro's look:

From this:

To this:

To this:

And finally this :3

Opinion #5 - Randy Orton & Christian.

This one's long overdue, don't you think?

Dear Orton marks, read if you want, but just be warned, I bash Orton's character and what Creative do with it a lot with my logic. If it offends you, I advise you not to read on because I'll probably piss you off. If you want to read on, go ahead and feel free to express your view. I'm more than happy to hear it. (:

Dear Those-Of-You-Who-Aren't-Orton-Marks, also feel free to read and express your opinion. :')

This will be a long post. The next two paragraphs are a quick overview of both guys' careers so skip that if you want.

Christian debuted in the WWF in 1998. He was involved in various stables but obviously, the highlight of his career then was tag-teaming with his best friend, Edge, who was at the time portrayed as his “brother”. They went on to win the World Tag Team Championship seven times and pretty much made a career out of ladder matches. People often overlook the tag team titles today and you can’t blame them considering how shit that division has gotten lately but if you look back then, there were some pretty strong tag teams and the matches were entertaining so to win amongst those seven times isn’t easy. Following this, he worked on his singles career, winning the European Championship, Light Heavyweight Championship, Hardcore Championship and the Intercontinental Championship (3 times). He won the tag team titles two more times, once with Lance Storm and once with Chris Jericho, which led to his heel turn in 2003/2004. He feuded with Jericho, which involved Trish Stratus and Lita. Then in 2005, he left and went to TNA as “Christian Cage”. Four years later, he returned to ECW, where he won the title twice. But seriously, ECW? His return didn’t get half the response it should have. Why? Because these kids have no fucking clue who he is. So where do they put him? ECW. Bro, he’s better than nearly all the guys you have on Smackdown and RAW. He was on RAW for a while before ending up on Smackdown. After an injury at the hands of ADR, he reunited with Edge. Following Edge’s retirement, he earned his place in the title picture, winning a battle royale.

Randy Orton debuted on TV in 2002. He was in the stable Evolution, won the IC championship once and shortly became the youngest World Heavyweight Champion at the age of 24. I enjoyed his Legend Killer gimmick. He made a decent heel. I could see he was talented and worked that persona well. As far as I can tell, he wasn’t involved in any solid feuds during this time, going from one legend to another and crushing them. In 2006, he was suspended for two months for “inappropriate conduct”. He won the tag team titles with Edge as Rated RKO once. He won the Royal Rumble in 2009. Within seven years, he won eight world titles. When the title reigns started flowing in like that, he got boring. I used to enjoy his matches but then that bloody RKO was just coming out from everywhere. It was boring.

Maybe this was just bad luck for Orton. By that, I don’t mean he was unlucky in winning so many titles. How can you call that unlucky? I mean, he was unlucky that there was nothing to those titles. There weren’t any particularly memorable storylines and gimmicks. The legend killer persona didn’t really work into his title shots and aside from that, I found him boring. He wasn’t competent as a babyface, as we’re seeing currently. Christian, for me, could work both the heel and babyface well. This is the biggest problem I see with the feud.

Christian defeated Alberto del Rio at Extreme Rules 2011 in a very good match. I enjoyed it, not just because Christian won but because both guys put together a great match, particularly ADR, who is much less familiar with ladder matches than Christian. Less than a week before this PPV, Randy Orton had been drafted to Smackdown and we knew what would happen. Two days later (for those of us who read the dirt sheets… Or anyone who was online that day really), our suspicions were confirmed.

Randy Orton strolled into Smackdown on his first day with nothing. By the end of the night, he walked out the World Heavyweight Champion. On his first day. I don’t care how high up the ladder he was on RAW. The fact of the matter is, he came to Smackdown so he starts from the bottom like everyone else does. Creative want to give him the title? Make it look as though he earned it rather than this whole “let’s see what the audience want” crap! Because they’re totally gonna choose Mark Henry or Khali over him, right? Or whoever the hell was in the ring then…

My dislike for Orton has gotten to the point where I can’t even listen to Voice without getting annoyed. I liked Rev Theory before this shit went down, dammit!

Back on topic.

I didn’t care if this would lead to a big feud. A two-day, first world title run after thirteen/seventeen years is just pitiful. And outrageous. Jericho hinted something massive would be coming.

And he sure as hell was right. Massively shit.

This was, quite possibly, one of the worst feuds I’d ever had the displeasure of seeing unfold. Cole/King just beat it to the top spot.

An Orton heel turn was teased early on when the night he beat Christian for the title, he said, “Remember, I’m the champion now…” or something along those lines. Instead, we had a Christian heel turn. I wasn’t going to complain! Christian makes a brilliant heel. The problem was… Aside from slagging off the WWE universe, like every heel does… I didn’t see much heel-ish about him and I saw no babyface qualities in Orton.

By Capitol Punishment, I was begging for this feud to be over with. I didn’t care if Christian was thrown out of the title picture because he was just getting buried and it got to the point where this feud was literally painful to watch.

For my Randy Orton sucks and makes a rubbish babyface rant, please go here.

Christian played whiny heel pretty well but again, I didn’t see anything heel-ish about him. If you think Christian’s character got screwed over, you’ll understand what I mean. He’s whiny and bitchy but… He doesn’t play dirty and he does everything for all the right reasons so I don’t quite understand why he’s being portrayed as the heel when he’s clearly more face-esque than Orton. It just astounds me how people buy Orton’s crap though. He’s a terrible babyface yet he gets cheered every time. I can’t even begin to comprehend the reasoning behind this. I just don’t understand and my head is hurting just trying to.

So we’re fed with atrocious booking with Orton punting people and RKO-ing them through the announce table every chance he gets, which, might I add, is the role of a heel, not a babyface and also, incredibly boring. We hear the same bloody thing, week after fucking week. We’re bombarded with comments regarding Orton’s “temper issues” and they make it so blatantly obvious that this is how Orton will lose at Money In The Bank. Christian winning was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing in that he was now a two-time World Heavyweight Champion. It was a curse because this feud was clearly not going to end soon. At SummerSlam, Orton will win that title back and hopefully, Christian will be saved from this hideous storyline.

Orton acts like a heel all the fucking time. GUESS WHAT, GUYS?! The top babyface on Smackdown is a fucking psychopath! Wow! That makes so much sense(!) Orton’s “threats” are so bad as well, it’s laughable, haha. Just please, sort this crap out. As if people actually eat this shit up.

Now correct me if I’m wrong but traditionally, the babyface is supposed to stand as a role model. He’s supposed to overcome obstacles and work his way to the top. He gets screwed over by the heel but eventually comes out on top. He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t lie. He sure as hell doesn’t have temper issues.

In the PG era, the babyface is supposed to be a role model to kids. Do we want kids as psychopaths? No. No, we do not.

Now is it me or does Christian fit that description better than Orton? I mean, Orton’s the one that’s been fluking wins by bad calls from referees. He then loses via disqualification. Christian breaks no rules and rightfully wins his matches. Is it really so hard to keep people in character? If you’re gonna make Orton a babyface, make him act like one. In other words, fucking sort out your booking! If you’re gonna keep Orton like this, just turn him heel already. Get your shit together, Smackdown.

Also, how does it make sense to have the Champion in the opening match and the number #1 contender in the main event? How? I don’t give a fuck who they are. Don’t make someone unpopular the champion because more often than not, he will be main eventing! Never should the number 1 contender be main eventing with the champion opening! It just defies all logic in this world. Let’s not even get onto the number of empty seats there are when Orton’s in the main event…

Don’t even get me started on how Sheamus has been thrown in and out of the title picture. A Sheamus face turn can only be a good thing. I’m just hoping he overthrows Randy fucking Orton.

Hopefully, you understand why this feud is so bad and why Randy Orton’s character’s booking sucks so much. You should also understand why I can’t stand Randy Orton. If not, read more here. (Same as previous link posted.)

If you would like to share your view, as I said previously, feel free to.

Opinion #3 - The Miz.

I’ve noticed that The Miz gets a lot of love on the internet. This somewhat helped sway my opinion on him.

He debuted in 2006, just before I stopped watching wrestling for the second time. I was 12-years-old and found him incredibly annoying and immediately couldn’t stand him. I completely overlooked him and thought, “Lol, fuck this n00b”.

I missed most of The Miz’s career up until last year so I guess it’s hard to explain what I think of him and why.

I started watching again and watched loads of old matches and promos that I missed and I was just shocked to see how well Miz had done for himself. Looking back at everything that was said and done by him, I think he deserves all the success that comes his way.

I completely overlooked him, as I said, initially but when you take the time to actually listen to him and watch him, you notice what a talented performer he actually is. It’s really sad that people often focus solely on the traits of the character a person is portraying as opposed to the skills they possess in order to effectively put on a good, entertaining show.

Today, I’m a huge fan of The Miz. When you look at his story, it’s amazing to think he’s managed to win that world title amongst other titles with a five month run considering he was thrown out of the locker room and effectively shunned by his co-workers. Every time I hear that, I just feel so bad for being one of the wrestling fans, who did that.

I take back every single bad thing I may have ever said about that guy.

He was absolute quality when he was tag teaming with John Morrison and on The Dirt Sheet. The bromance he had with Alex Riley was absolutely beautiful. It came across so strongly every time they were together, it felt real. Really real. And today, a lot of promos etc. feel so forced but not with Miz and A-Ry.

Unlike some of the performers, he’s entertaining and he can put on a great show. His mic skills are awesome. The personality he has fits the heel role perfectly whilst also being attractive, funny and charismatic. As we’re seeing with A-Ry right now, he’s great at putting over younger talent and this what the company needs now more than ever!(That being said, it's like they've been burying him lately and this needs to stop!) With Orton and Cena stomping on everyone into the mid/lower card, a guy like The Miz is like a saviour. He earned my respect and admiration.

I love the Miz.

I think everyone should love the Miz.

Because he’s the Miz.

And he’s awesome.

This is the Off The Ropes Show. It's awesome. They regularly review TNA, RAW, Smackdown & PPVs.

This particular video is "15 Reasons the WWE Sucks". It makes a lot of sense. Enjoy.

who remembers Snitsky?

i feel like puking just thinking about him... and every time he opened his mouth...

Day 12 - Funniest Moment

I can't really choose but... I already used the DX one about whether Shawn's "controversial" so I think I'll go with this one.

The Miz and John Morrison. My brother and I crack up every time! :'D

"That's what people do, they look at me and they like what they see"

I can't stop watching this, ohmygod. It's been ages since I last saw it and now I can't stop. Too hilarious. :'D

They're like some gay couple having an argument ahahaha. Good times these were. :')

This will never not be funny. :')