Could John Cena Turn Heel?

By Eric Darsie

One of the most popular topics to debate on wrestling podcasts, websites, and message boards is the idea of John Cena turning heel. On one of the podcasts I listen to, the Still Real to Us Show (can be found here), had several different episodes discussing if Cena could do what the smarks want him to do, and that’s “turn on his fans.” One episode I remember them talking about it was their WrestleMania XXIX episode (can be found here) when Cena challenged the Rock for the WWE Championship.

Once again, that topic was brought up on the Bryan and Vinny show twice this past week over at WrestlingObserver.com, where on the Monday, April 28^th, 2014 show (can be found here) and on the Wednesday, April 20^th, 2014 show (can be found here). Granted on both shows, Bryan Alveraz didn’t want to discuss Cena turning heel again, but it was being brought up again on their message board. Why him bringing it up caught my attention was one of the reasons why he believes Cena turning heel wouldn’t work, and that’s all the charity work John Cena does.

On Monday, April 28^th’s WWE Monday Night Raw, a video package played airing Cena granting three wishes with Make-A-Wish that he recently granted. With his feud against Bray Wyatt, WWE Creative is starting to tie in fans “starting to turn on” John Cena, and are being brain washed by the Wyatt Family. Bryan mentioned on one of the Bryan and Vinny shows that the spilt reaction started as far back as SummerSlam 2005 when Cena defended the WWE title against Chris Jericho. In a sense its foolish to mention that the fans are starting to turn on Cena because of the Wyatt Family since Cena mentioned it many of times before on numerous promos, as well as the announcers mentioned it during programs, and previous opponents mentioned the spilt reactions.

Does the charity work make John Cena a babyface? In the eyes of children and parents, yes. Along with what the character stands for, John Cena is a babyface, hands down. In the eyes of the female’s fans, Cena is a face for his good looks and keeping up with being in great shape. The male demographic and the internet community is tired of seeing Cena as the top babyface and demands a change in character. Like what Bryan Alvarez said during one of the Bryan and Vinny shows this past week, nothing will change if Cena’s character does.

We already saw John Cena face everybody in main events. Randy Orton, Triple H, Batista, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Bray Wyatt, Daniel Bryan, they all faced John Cena as heels (or as a face). If Cena happens to turn, we’d had to see him face those guys (or other guys I haven’t mentioned) all over again, only the tides had changed. Some of those feuds I don’t want to see again. Batista isn’t accepted as a babyface, Shawn Michaels won’t wrestle again, and his feud against Randy Orton was overdone when they had it before hand.

Besides having to rehatch a lot of feuds that’s been done before, the merchandise sales would go down because the kids and the women would feel that Cena has turned on them (and he would’ve, if he became a heel). John Cena is the top selling superstar in merchandise sales (can be found here), so if he turns, it could hurt the WWE financially. As a member of the internet community, that doesn’t matter to me but I do understand that WWE wants to make the best moves for the company financially.

If the WWE is concerned about their merchandising sales if they turn Cena, then should build up a new babyface superstar to take his place, if WWE Creative and Vince McMahon decides to make that decision. Daniel Bryan could be the face of the company if they keep building him up like they have in the last few years, but he isn’t in that place right now. Maybe in a few years Bryan could be the man to carry the torch for Cena, maybe. That decision is in the hands of the WWE and in my opinion; I can’t see them making that power play.

So, could John Cena turn heel? He could, Hulk Hogan did it in 1996 when he joined up with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall and turned on all the Hulkamanics and WCW. I feel like it would have to be the right storyline, like it was for Hogan in 1996. The ratings didn’t jump right away for WCW Monday Nitro when “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan and the New World Order formed, but with the heat they gained while steamrolling over all the babyfaces, fans tuned in and wanted to see what was next for the New World Order. If the angle and storyline was right, John Cena could turn heel. Like mentioned earlier, WWE needs to build up the next top babyface and marketing tool if Vince McMahon and the Creative Team wants to turn John Cena. But as of now, I don’t expect John Cena to be other than the babyface he’s been for almost about a decade now. We can fantasy book it and all, but all it’ll be is fantasy. Let’s enjoy the product that the WWE is putting on and let’s see what’s next, for the next line of main eventers and next line of feuds and storylines.

Could the WWE Network Devalue the WWE World Heavyweight Championship?

Could the WWE Network Devalue the WWE World Heavyweight Championship?

By Eric Darsie

One of the biggest moves the WWE has made in the last decade has to be creating the WWE Network. On the opening day, I subscribed to the Network, excited to watch older pay-per-views from World Championship Wrestling and from mid-90s World Wrestling Federation. Another thing I’m thrilled about being a subscriber to the WWE Network is getting the current pay-per-views for free (technically it’s included with the $9.99 a month).

The pay-per-view name is starting to be phased out and the term “special events” are being used over the traditional pay-per-view name, since cable providers aren’t carrying the cards as pay-per-views anymore. After WrestleMania XXX, I’m starting to be concerned with how these “special events” will be booked.

First off, I find the “special events” name to be silly because I grew up with the pay-per-view name and loved the “supercard” name that was thrown around whenever I watched 80s WCW or WWF television. Whenever there’s a title match on Monday Night Raw or Friday Night SmackDown, those matches should be seen as something special, because it’s not usual to see championship brawls on television.

I feel if WWE booked these “special events” like they did for traditional pay-per-views or old Saturday Night’s Main Events, current fans and old-school fans who bought the Network off of the classic programming would tune in to watch the monthly “supercard.”

But with how the booking, in my opinion, hasn’t been as good as it once was over a decade ago, I’ve been in-and-out interested on the current product the last five or so years, depending on what storylines are a-happenin’ on the television every week. The Shawn Michaels-Chris Jericho feud from 2008, or the 400+ day WWE title reign of CM Punk, or the rise of Daniel Bryan and the Yes Movement, feuds and storylines like such are a few things that peaked my interest in WWE since WrestleMania XXV.

Secondly, and the biggest problem I have with the WWE Network is the WWE World Heavyweight Championship being devalued with the “special events.” The reason why I’m concerned that the WWE World Heavyweight title will be devalued is I’m concerned that the WWE Creative Team would consider the “special events” as an extension of Raw’s and SmackDown’s that they write for every week. Since the buyrate of the pay-per-view doesn’t matter anymore, why should they build-up storylines and have them climax once a month or why should they book a storyline that ends with a plot twist or an ending to the story once a month?

I am sure I am overreacting on my concern, since WrestleMania XXX was the only pay-per-view to be offered on the Network and only way we would know the pay-per-views/“special events” are simply an extension to weekly television once a month is waiting for WrestleMania 31 and see how things were booked between WrestleMania’s, but I feel like this is something that should be a concern for WWE and for the fan of the WWE product.

What would I suggest WWE Creative to do with my concern? I hope they prove me wrong by booking these Network pay-per-views like they had before when they were still offered on cable providers and deliver on the “special events,” making people want to turn into Raw every Monday night and SmackDown every Friday night and keep subscribing to the Network for they can continue watching to see what’s next for the following “special event.”

Yes, I am saying the Creative Team inside the WWE should do what they’re hired to do and give us angles and storylines that brings us back every week and give us a reason (or better yet, reasons) to give up our hard earned money to see what they have next week-in-and-week-out, and more yet, month-in-and-month-out. I guess, in the end, I don’t have much faith in the WWE Creative Team. They have put on awesome shows the last three months with the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and WrestleMania. The build for Evolution versus the Shield for Extreme Rules. The beat-down that Kane gave to WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan on Raw on Monday, April 21^st.

I am looking forward to seeing how the six-man tag match will climax at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view and I am excited to see how Daniel Bryan retains the WWE World Heavyweight strap in a Extreme Rules match against the Big Red Machine. I hope the Creative Team keeps this trend up because if they do, my faith will be built back up in them and they’ll bring me back into the current product.

So, could the WWE Network devalue the WWE World Heavyweight Championship? As a whole, I don’t think so. But the Creative Team can by how they book pay-per-views. That’s with any champion and any era. I feel like the WWE Network could help bring value back to the WWE World Heavyweight title, and any other title the Creative decides to put value back in. Like said above, I hope the Creative Team keeps up with how they’ve been booking feuds and storylines so far this year, things are slowly starting to look positive.

WWE SummerSlam Tour

WWE SummerSlam Tour

One of the perks of where I work, I’m able to listen to my iPod and usually listen to podcast, to help past the time. I listen to a lot of wrestling podcasts, talking news and reviewing classic events, among listening to different podcast of interests I have outside of the industry of professional wrestling.

Anyways, one of the wrestling podcasts I listen to discusses wrestling events that’s ten years old or older. The podcast I listen to is called the Old School Wrestling podcast (found here) and on their 99^th episode, the host discussed the National Wrestling Alliance’s 1987 Great American Bash tour (podcast can be found here). Pushing a three hour show, I enjoyed listening to the Black Cat and Dre from start to finish. While listening to their show, I thought of something that inspired this blog.

What if Vince McMahon takes the World Wrestling Entertainment on a similar tour that Jim Crockett took the Jim Crockett Promotions on the Great American Bash tour for a few years in the late-80s? Could a professional wrestling tour be successful in the 2010s?

With SummerSlam being the WWE’s summer WrestleMania, why not give it a different taste than your normal wrestling pay-per-view feel and combine what the Jim Crockett Promotions did and capitalize on a summer tour?

Here’s my idea for the WWE SummerSlam tour: eliminate the June and July pay-per-views and after the May show, build up SummerSlam by the winner of a summer tour gets a shot at the WWE Champion. To go with the SummerSlam DVD sales, why not make it a two-disc sell and on the second disc, put together all the matches of the summer tournament tour, for we receive a snapshot of why the challenger was facing the WWE Champion in the main event.

One thing I enjoyed from my teenage years was when the WWE did for one year only when building up Brock Lesnar in 2002, having him win the King of the Ring tournament and challenge for the Undisputed WWE title at SummerSlam and used the July pay-per-view as a stepping stone between the July PPV and the August PPV to continue building “the Next Big Thing.”

Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown, as well as WWE’s Wednesday Main Event should host a few of the matches, but shouldn’t be the focus of the three WWE weekly shows. Why not add in a few summer specials on television, similar to what they did in the late-80s and early-90s with Saturday Night Main Events, only for the summer. Maybe call it the “WWE: SummerSlam Special Tour, Episode (insert a number here)” and limit those shows to a couple a year, to make it something special, and make the SummerSlam build mean more.

Could the WWE use their June and July pay-per-views to build up properly to SummerSlam? They hadn’t in years and I don’t have the faith for them to try again. So if they eliminate two pay-per-views and schedule only ten PPVs a year, having three months between the May show and SummerSlam, SummerSlam would mean more since, if booked properly, would mean more since there were months between the paid shows.

I guess you, the reader, might be yelling at your screen, telling me that I answered my question in the paragraph above, saying that even eliminating two pay-per-views, WWE would crap on my idea since their bookers can’t write the storylines that a lot of us loved when we were kids. I’ll give you that. WWE has guys like Zeb Colter (Dutch Mantel) and Paul Heyman, who the books could be given to after WrestleMania and let them book the storyline and let Triple H or Vince McMahon, whoever, guide them and approve and disapprove on where the storylines go.

WWE had everything at their fingertips (or in their hands, depending on how old school they really are) on booking this correctly. I don’t have much faith in their booking abilities nowadays but the little faith that I do have in them, if they treated this like something special, they could make this mean something.

To conclude, this was a fun idea for me to kick around and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. Let me know if you guys think my idea could work, or what changes you would cause, or if you could simply rewrite my blog and add in your own ideas, what are they? I’m more than happy to hear your thoughts and opinions. Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your day!

WWE: June 13th, 2006 ECW Review

WWE: Tuesday Night ECW Review

Tuesday, June 13^th, 2006 – Trenton, New Jersey – Some Arena That Either I Didn’t Hear Them Say or They Didn’t Announce – Welcome to a series of blogs on the first few episodes of WWE’s third brand, ECW! Granted this wasn’t the original Extreme Championship Wrestling, but I enjoyed the original airings of WWECW. So, wanting to give it another spin, I’ll be reviewing the first few episodes I recorded on VHS, and then dubbed onto DVD years later. Hope you guys enjoy the reviews!

The show started with Drowning Pool’s “Bodies” theme, along with ECW’s One Night Stand pay-per-view 48 hours prior, along with John Cena saying on Monday Night Raw the night before that he’ll show up on ECW, trying to gain retribution for losing the WWE title to RVD on Sunday night!

Segment One: Paul Heyman was welcomed by the “ECW” fans at Trenton, New Jersey, and by Justin Roberts, the ECW ring announcer. The fans love seeing Paul E. back and I can’t blame them. Joey Styles and Tazz are our announcers for the show, and a team I really enjoyed at the announce booth.

After Styles and Tazz did their opening speal, Heyman introduced the WWE Champion, who carried the spinner belt. Man, am I ever happy the spinner belt was ditched and the new WWE title debuted about a month ago.

Rob Van Dam thanked Paul and also thanked the fans for the cheers and support to their new champion. Van Dam mentioned that Cena claims he’d show up and wants him to “do the right thing” and help celebrate ECW’s debut on the SciFi network!

Heyman mentions that since RVD defeated Cena two nights before at ECW’s One Night Stand, Heyman wants to crown RVD as the NEW EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION!

Paul asked RVD what he’ll do with the WWE title, and Rob responded by saying he’ll defend both titles. Moments after, Edge’s theme hit and he and Lita came to the ring. The crowd chanted “Thank You Edge!” because it was Edge that helped RVD win two nights before, defeating John Cena.

Edge shook RVD’s hand and said he’s looking forward to challenging him for the WWE title at Vengence, and got speared for believing Edge only wanted to shake hands. Edge and Lita tried to leave in the crowd but Cena showed up and tossed him back to the ringside area and the three men battled each other for a few minutes.

After the commercial break, Heyman was backstage with the ECW roster and told his roster that if the Raw roster wanted to show them what they were about, the ECW roster will show up on Monday Night Raw, on the USA Network, and show the Raw guys what they’re about! Yes!

Match One: the Zombie versus the Sandman

When the Zombie got into the ring, he went over to Justin Roberts and grabbed the mic and spoke “Zombie language,” grunting into the mic. Maybe 15 seconds into his grunts, the Sandman’s theme hit, and he came down through the crowd, with beer and the kendo stick in hand!

Before the bell rang, Sandman nailed the Zombie with the Kendo Stick, tagging with a pop from the crowd! The bell rang and the Sandman wen to town with the Kendo Stick when the Zombie was on the ground.

The Sandman picked him up and hit him with the White Russian Leg Sweep, pinned him, and scored the victory!

Winner: the Sandman!

For the first match, I am pleased that this lasted minutes, if that, and allowing the new ECW audience to see what the Sandman was all about. I have to give this match a * and ½ * rating, since it was super short, and we saw a Kendo Stick beating on a “dead dude!”

Segment Two: Kelly Kelly tells us all about what she’s about…that she’s all about taking her clothes off! The crowd popped huge for that statement! What horny teenage boys and young-20-somethings!

After the commercial break, we see a video package from ECW One Night Stand and we see the match Tazz and Jerry Lawler had. I guess you can say this was ECW’s second match.

Match Two: Tazz versus Jerry “the King” Lawler (from ECW One Night Stand 2006)

The crowd at the arena where the PPV took place was a “vintage ECW crowd,” cheering for Tazz and booing hugely when Lawler’s theme hit. To gain more heat, Lawler walked over to where Styles was sitting at and slapped him across the face, making sure the fans hated him. Another great clip to show the ECW fans what they were about.

Styles ran down to the ring and jumped Lawler. He didn’t get far, since Lawler was a trained wrestler and he wasn’t. Lawler threw him off of him and was about to hit the piledriver on Style, but Tazz grabbed Lawler and put him in the Tazzmission.

The King passed out to the Tazzmission and Tazz picked up the victory!

Winner: Tazz!

I have to give this match a * and ¾ * rating, because it was short, and told an awesome story. Like mentioned for the Sandman match, Lawler put over Tazz great, helping show the world what ECW was about and helped continue the rivalry that Lawler and ECW had back in the 90’s. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, find the ECW documentary and watch it. WWE’s “Rise and Fall of ECW” tells it perfectly on why Lawler didn’t like ECW at the time.

Match Three: Kurt Angle versus Justin Credible

The first thing that happened was when Credible entered the ring, he ran towards Angle and Angle hit the double leg take down onto Justin Credible and showed the fans what WWE “never allowed” him to do, and that’s be the “Wrestling Machine,” and show off his amateur moves.

Angle let Credible up and Credible got into Angle’s face, I guess telling him that Angle has nothing on him, and Angle responded with a headbutt, which Credible kneeled because of it, and Angle locked on a choke hold, which caused Credible to tap out.

Winner: Kurt Angle!

I have to give this match a * star rating, since it was all Angle, and seemed a lot like a squash match, which isn’t bad at all. Helps put Angle over as a Wrestling Machine and shows the WWE Universe the new style Angle was trying to put over.

Angle grabbed the mic said that it doesn’t matter what set of rules he faces Randy Orton because he’ll make Orton tap out at Vengeance and he’s the new face of ECW!

Segment Three: Paul Heyman’s backstage and asked us if we want to fell extreme. Heyman threw out all his plans and said that the main event would be a ten man Extreme Battle Royal and the winner would face John Cena at Vengeance. Great way to put over the winner of the Battle Royal.

Segment Four: Kelly Kelly’s Exposé. Yup, Kelly Kelly danced and tried to take her clothes off. What else can I say? Not much of a reaction, which I was surprised. Whatever.

Match Four: the Extreme Battle Royal!

Tommy Dream, Sabu, Al Snow, Stevie Richards, Road Kill, some guy who I don’t know and was never named, the FBI, Balls Mahoney, and the Big Show all participated in the Battle Royal. All this humanity in a hardcore Battle Royal, I’m excited! It’ll be hard to do a play-by-play for this match; I’ll mention some of the highlights.

Hands down, the Big Show was highlighted off and on throughout the battle royal. Makes me wonder on whom’ll get put over in this match. Hmm, interesting.

Road Kill and Tommy Dreamer both tried at individual times to take out the Big Show with weapons and they both didn’t get far. Well, the only time they went far was when the Big Show tossed them out of the ring. Good paycheck for them, I suppose.

Big Guido and the Big Show went at it and the Big Show almost eliminated Guido, until Guido held onto the Show and Sabu grabbed a chair and jumped and smacked the Show on the back, eliminated him!

Winner: Sabu!

I have to say that this match has to be a ** star match. The weapons helped to put this match and episode over. I am looking forward to future episodes, since I edited this down; ECW was only 45 minutes long, which I really enjoyed. If the WWE wants to keep all the shows that they currently have, I don’t know why they bump Raw down to two hours, Smackdown to an hour, and have the Main Event on Wednesday nights stay an hour, and have Saturday Morning Slam 30 minutes long, because that’d be an easy dose to put down for WWE.

But that’s my opinion. As a “debut episode,” I have to give this show a ** and a ¼ * rating, since it showcased some of the main stars on ECW and gave the new audience a taste of what’s to come. Like said, I really enjoyed the hour television format because it was easy to digest and forces the WWE to hit the main points rather fast. If you can, go out and find this episode.

To the WrestleMania Haters: Stop Complaining and Watch

To the WrestleMania Haters: Stop Complaining and Watch

By Dirty Dawg Darsie

One thing I’ve been hearing a lot for this year’s WrestleMania is a lot of complaining since the build-up for the WWE Championship match between champion the Rock versus his challenger John Cena haven’t been “up to par for the die-hard fans.” I even heard people comparing this year’s WrestleMania to WrestleMania IX in 1993. I’m writing to those people who are down on WrestleMania XXIX: quit complaining!

I want to bring attention to last year’s WrestleMania, WrestleMania XXVIII, with the main events being Triple H versus the Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell, the WWE Champion CM Punk defending the title against Chris Jericho, the World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan facing Sheamus, and the Rock taking on John Cena – deeming that match “once in a lifetime.” Okay, why bring up those four main-events and why bring up last year’s WrestleMania? Everyone wanted to watch those matches yet after the show, only match they liked was the “End of an Era” Hell in a Cell match.

After the show last year, I remember people crapping on the show since it didn’t live up to their expectations. For me, WrestleMania lived up to my expectations, and I had none. Why? I listen to podcasts, recapping the shows and discuss the main angles from the week, and I watch Raw from every week, but when I hold any wrestling show to a certain standard, it never lives up to it. Last year for WrestleMania, I didn’t hold any standards for it, so it blew nothing out of the water.

So, those who been bashing WrestleMania XXIX, stop doing so! Do what I and if the build-up for any of the matches aren’t living up to your expectations, don’t have any.

The WWE Championship build-up hasn’t tickled me in any way, with John Cena and the Rock missed a Raw a few weeks back and the Rock missed the following Raw, so I understand on how that build-up hasn’t been that great. Their promos have been hit and miss for me. Whenever both men are serious and say why they believe they can defeat each other, and obviously respond, I enjoy it. Whenever Cena goes on a long mumble or they joke around stuff that doesn’t matter, they kill the excitement for me.

Also, in regards to their match, I hate that people are complaining about their WrestleMania 2012 match was built as “Once in a Lifetime” and they’re facing each other again. What did they expect once the Rocky defeated the active, full-time John Cena? Rock grew up in the business and is back wrestling the few matches he has to give back the industry he loves and grew up in. Yes, Rock defeated CM Punk twice, but for business, that was the best thing to do. And for business, Rock losing to Cena at Mania this year is good for business (that’s what is expected).

I’m sure you, the reader, aren’t excited for the Chris Jericho/Fandango match either. I wasn’t either once that match was announced, or when those two teased it on television. We all know that Jericho’s at the end of his career and comes around whenever his schedule allows him to. With his run last year, losing to CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler, Jericho’s back to put the new generation of stars over. If you don’t believe me, look at his last run when he came back in 2007 and feuded with Randy Orton, he put over Orton right from the start!

With Triple H versus Brock Lesnar, all I can say about their match is, just watch. Yes, even I expect Triple H to go over, even though rumors already from the Wrestling Observer gentlemen, Lesnar will be facing the Rock next year at WrestleMania in New Orleans, and it’ll make sense for Lesnar to go over, but the last several WrestleMania matches Triple H’s been in, they’ve been amazing, regarding as one of the best matches on the WrestleMania card, and even for the year! I don’t think Triple H came out of “retirement” to retire from wrestling, but enjoy the ride and see what he and Lesnar have for us to watch. I know both men want to steal the show and want their match to memorable, so let’s step back, not hold any standards to their match, and enjoy what they do best, and that’s put on a show inside that twenty-by-twenty ring.

To conclude my opinion piece, if you don’t like what the WWE Creative Team has for us in regards to the build for WrestleMania 29, don’t hold any expectations and enjoy the ride that we’re on. I did that for WrestleMania 28 and enjoyed the show and don’t understand why people crapped on the matches from that card. No one likes to hear people complain, keep those negative opinions to yourself and let the wrestlers do their job and entertain us.