The RandomPages #11- Wrestling Special

*Okay, so here we are again folks, ready for another exciting installment of The RandomPages? Well here it is. In my quest to reach a broader audience I have decided to do a special reaching one of the most faithful audiences around, the wrestling fans, they would have to be faithful to stick around this long.*

The Royal Rumble

It’s that time of year again everyone, time for the Royal Rumble. This year it is going to include 30 men. I have read a slew of articles on whose going to win, so I decided to write one as well. Here are my top picks, just bear in mind that the Rumble is still a ways away. Here goes:

Christian- He has been out with his injury to his ankle for a while now, but should be ready for the Rumble. Look for him to be a surprise entrant. He is likely to pull a few Edge moves if he is still heel at this time, he won’t get many eliminations but he will last a while. His likelihood of winning the Rumble 6/10.

Dolph Ziggler- I have a feeling the “show-off” will be heeling his way to his first Royal Rumble victory. It is very likely that he too will pull a page from Edge’s book and will last a long time if he has to, maybe even ducking under the bottom rope as has been done a few times now. He is in the big Championship picture now so this is his likely step towards the goal of becoming a main heel character. His likelihood of winning the Rumble 9.5/10.

Kane- He is on a roll. He is big which is always a plus in these matches, he is strong which is another plus, and his character change makes him relevant again. I think the big, red monster will be on top for a while, and if WWE is smart they will make it so. While he is a powerful threat, his elimination would be a great success to any superstar and he is already over so the Royal Rumble won’t help him in that department. He holds a lot of the Royal Rumble records, but has never actually won one, so I give him a good 7.5/10.

Mick Foley- Do you honestly believe a thing like being told he couldn’t participate will keep him out. He might eliminate everybody so a certain someone can slink in a claim victory at number 30. You never know who that certain someone is. Foley will be there, the question is will he be a legal participate. I give him 7/10.

Brodus Clay- The Funkasaurus just premiered. He is on a roll and he is huge. Those three things may set him up for victory. He is rather unorthodox but you never know. If he wins the WWE doesn’t have to go through the trouble of developing him. Also if you will notice they waited to premiere him until after the Slammy Awards, this would be an excellent way to get Best New Superstar of the year. I give him a 6/10.

Chris Jericho- He’s back, he’s weird and not saying much. Only what little bit you can hear on camera and an eerie message stating that the Royal Rumble is the end of the world. There are a lot of rumors going around that Jericho is going to be an agent for the McMahons. I don’t know if it is true, hence the term rumors, but that would set up a rather interesting story. I believe he has a great chance because he is going with the whole mysterious superstar thing and a loss would really stop his momentum dead unless he eliminates himself from the match like he did in the 6-way tag match on Raw. WWE may actually have something interesting planned for the Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rolla. I give him 9/10.

Cody Rhodes- He is ready to make the jump, he has held the Intercontinental Championship for an almost record setting span, beaten a former World Champion (well several actually, Triple H and HBK most notably.), and has had a rather good history since his days in Legacy. Now it looks like the setup will be a rivalry between Booker T and Gold Dust, in which he is very likely to drop the I.C. belt to either rival as a result of interference. This would give WWE an excuse to have him drop the belt yet not lose any credibility as a main heel. A Royal Rumble win is not out of the question for Rhodes, so long as his two rivals don’t cost him. I give him a 7/10.

Albertoooooo Del Riooooooo- Yeah, sadly he may be the Royal Rumble winner. He is injured and hasn’t been seen in a while and WWE loves to bring injured stars back to win the Rumble. Since coming literally out of nowhere Del Rio has won the WWE Championship and injured a few superstars, thus establishing himself as a dominant heel for some reason. Though to be honest a solid submission specialist is something WWE has needed since the Attitude Era, and no, I don’t want to hear, ‘there’s always Daniel Bryan’, he doesn’t convince me he is a submission specialist. I don’t doubt Bryan is a good wrestler but he is a shining example of what happens when WWE doesn’t develop their superstars. I digress and give Alberto 6/10.

The Miz- Because he’s awesome…just kidding. I know he is entering at number one, but if you will pay attention to your history just as many people have won at one than thirty. That, however is not what I base my opinion on. The Miz is a character that needs something to brag about, I’m sorry but the whole ‘WWE’s most must-see superstar’ gimmick is getting old and his last title run was months ago and we know about him taking out all his friends, whatever, we saw it. A win at the Rumble as the first entry would not only give him something to brag about but would also give his character some legitimacy. I give him an 9.5/10, so long as R-Truth stays away.

Sin Cara- I know what you’re thinking…Who? He hasn’t been doing much here recently so he is the perfect random choice for a Rumble winner. Why Bryan, you are probably asking me. My answer, Rey Mysterio. Rey Mysterio is sadly nearing the end of his long and storied career, several injuries have seen to that. Rey Mysterio’s popularity has to go somewhere, why not shift it over to Sin Cara? They are both cut from the same cloth, look about the same, and look good on merchandise. Sin Cara has not been around all that long and is already on the WWE kiddie book bags they have at Wal-Mart, what has he done to merit such a thing? Well, maybe he will be the random winner of the Royal Rumble match. I give him a 5/10.

*With that out of the way I will now direct us in a different route, we will look at the problems in the WWE, my personal favorite wrestlers in all of wrestling, and overrated and underrated superstars.*

Problems

Let’s face it, the good old WWE isn’t what it used to be since it entered into the Rated G Era, not that that is completely a bad thing. The women performers aren’t as sexually exploited anymore and it is an alright show for kids to watch, not that I turned out bad watching the Attitude Era programming. Also the WWE has gotten a whole lot better in the past few months, thanks in no small part to CM Punk whose pipe bomb served as a wake-up call and an unofficial transition to a new Era, we will call it for the sake of this article, the Mo’ Better Era. Look now, Kane is tough again, people are actually entertained, someone can hold a belt for longer than a month without the championship reign becoming stale, and times are getting better in the WWE. However there are still some problems that need addressing.

1. Development of Characters- They have gotten somewhat better at this, but they still need to work on it. To their credit they did force feed the World Champion caliber version of The Miz down our throat and now he is a legit and versatile heel, but you can only force feed someone so much until it becomes messy. WWE has to get back to long-term development of characters or it will completely mess everything up. One way to do this is….

2. Tag Team Division- Tag Teams have given us a bunch of legit World Champions, let’s look at Edge, Jeff Hardy, Christian, The Miz and even the Icon Sting, just to name a few. My brother told me this as we were talking about it, if you have a good tag team division the rest will fall into place, that is true, but you also have to have legit stables, not just throw two people together without any prior history. There hasn’t been a good, legit tag team champion since Show-Miz which didn’t develop very long, mind you. Look at the Hardy Boyz, they were brothers which is the easiest way of cementing history, the Miz and Morrison team were a heel stable in ECW (Morrison also had stents with other teams, most notably MNM), Edge and Christian were college pals/brothers (The brother angle kind of faded away over time.) You have to make the teams believable. I know what you’re saying, there’s the Uso’s and the now defunct team of the Hart Dynasty, yes, but they didn’t hold the belts for long and the Uso’s are not developed in the least. The current Tag Team Champions were not a stable a few months ago, and Air Boom sort of came out of nowhere even though Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne have worked together for quite a while, but at least it’s an official stable. The Nasty Boys got laughed out of their WWE audition because they didn’t look down when Booker T entered the locker room. The Nasty Boys from my understanding are one of the most decorated teams in ROH, I haven’t actually ever seen them, but that whole thing caused uproar of dissatisfaction in the wrestling community. The Nasty Boys could have done nothing but good for the failing tag team division of WWE. I will tell you what the problem is: they unified the belts. One Tag Team Championship equals a bad division with only a few teams, and Air Boom is out for either 60 or 90 days because Evan Bourne violated the wellness policy for the second time. I will tell you what one step in the right direction would be, use this rivalry between Cody Rhodes and Booker T/ Gold Dust to bring back an old stable and add a new, pre-developed team to the roster, Booker T and Gold Dust. Then de-unify the belts after first establishing a few more stables, bring back Cryme Time maybe, they were entertaining. Recruit new talent and maybe restart the old precedent of developing your current teams such as Air Boom and the Uso’s. Come up with a themed team like the Dudley Boys used to be. Maybe establish a (ONE) new faction of old superstars like Triple H, with new superstars in order to develop them, give them a run with the belts, and create a legitimate stable. The Mo’ Better Era will hopefully see to this.

3. History- Short, sweet, and to the point, pay attention to your history WWE. If these two people were sworn enemies at one point you will have to do something pretty drastic to turn them into allies.

4. Blink and you miss it Title runs- WWE has improved on this to some extent, except with Zack Ryder’s U.S. Championship run. If a person is a champion, it is because they earned it, don’t make them so easily defeated.

5. Wasted Talent- WWE wastes more talent than Americans do food. There comes a point where you have to keep people in reserve just for a rainy day or an interesting feud. David Hart Smith should still be with WWE, as too should Chris Masters. D.H. Smith and Tyson Kid were a relatively respectable tag team from respectable roots. Chris Masters hit a rut for a while, doing only stupid video segments and losing to jobbers, who could forget the peck bouncing to Crazy Train? He could still be useful. I know a whole lot of people don’t like him but that doesn’t change my opinion of one particular superstar, can you guess who I’m talking about? Matt Hardy. TNA made him out to be a submission specialist and guess what…it worked. ‘Cold Blooded’ Matt Hardy was an edgy character who I really liked. He got released after crashing his car whilst being intoxicated, even though Jeff got away with a lot more. Matt would do great in WWE if he came back as a heel. Oh, and John Morrison was once in vie for a World Champion position, they gave him a losing streak and released him, but he’s not upset, rumor has it he will be joining TNA’s roster along with Melina and Chris Masters. WWE wastes talent, TNA picks it up.

6. Forgetting storylines- Once again, short, sweet, and to the point, WWE forgets story lines like crazy. Whatever happened to the Jinder Mahal/ Khali story line? It fizzled out as do so many storylines. Any story about a lesser man controlling a monster is a good one. WWE forgot.

7. ECW- Cancelling ECW was one of the worst mistakes WWE has made. It was an entertaining show, with great talent, a great champion, and a feel all its own. If anything they should have expanded it, given it it’s own tag belts and secondary belt. They cancelled it for NXT which is now an online show for anyone bored enough to watch it. Hopefully the Mo’ Better Era will see to its reinstatement, and soon.

8. Superstars age- The prime of a superstar’s career is probably in the seven to ten year range. After that there’s not much that can be done with the superstar. WWE is going to have to come up with better ways of getting and developing talent in believable ways or the Mo’ Better Era will end very soon. The Undertaker is nearing the end of his career, and that’s assuming he will be able to even defend his streak at WrestleMania. Kane may not have too much longer either, though he will be around for a few more years I’m sure. Triple H is phasing out and HBK is gone and Edge is gone to soon. Big Show won’t be around too much longer either. Eventually it will be time for John Cena and Randy Orton to hang up the boots, then C.M. Punk and Daniel Bryan. There will have to be suitable replacements or WWE will fizzle out.

*Also, just as a little side note, I have heard rumors about the unification of the I.C. and U.S. Championships as well as the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships, that would be a huge error in judgement.*

Bryan’s Top 10 Favorite Wrestlers

10. Jeff Hardy- I think he has gotten away with entirely too much, but if he can stay clean I think he will have a bright future.

9. Gunner- He is still relatively new to TNA, he is tough and I like his style. Definitely a franchise of TNA.

8. Matt Hardy- Currently not doing much in the way of wrestling I still like him. His submission specialist heel character was one of his best. He has a lot of health problems but I would like to see him with a significant title run wherever he goes.

7. Zack Ryder- Woo Woo Woo, you know it. He is one of the most entertaining characters WWE has developed. I didn’t care for him much as an Edge-head but when he feuded with Christian in ECW I began to take notice of him and now he is doing great. I just hope he can continue to keep up his popularity or he may become TNA’s newest asset.

6. Kurt Angle- He has been around for a long time. I remember early WWE/F days when he was the boyishly naïve face and the egomaniacal heel. He is definitely one of TNA’s best talents and I will be rooting for him in the upcoming 2012 Olympics.

5. Kane- He is significant now and I like it. I have always rooted for Kane, but since he lost his mask he went from unstoppable to jobber bait. Now he’s back and better and badder than ever. I hope he beats Cena at the Rumble.

4. Ric Flair- I like Flair, what can I say? He is a Legend. I have had the privilege of shaking his hand at an autograph signing. He is simply one of the greatest ever.

3. Sting- The Icon is an innovator in professional wrestling. He realized early on adaptation was the key to survival. He’s still trucking along although I cannot say for how long. He is helping to turn TNA into a household name.

2. C.M. Punk- He’s the best in the world. I have always liked Punk which makes it better that he is the champion. He will bring WWE back to prominence. He is very talented both physically and vocally.

1. The Undertaker- The Phenom is one of the most entertaining wrestlers to grace the squared circle. He was always so fluid with his motion and devastatingly strong. He will never be forgotten and as a definite future Hall of Famer he will not be.

Overrated Superstars

*Here is a list of the top Overrated Superstars in all of Wrestling.*

1. John Cena- I know I am not the first person to say this. John Cena’s whole character is absolutely pointless. Okay, I get it, kids look up to his ‘Never give up’ mentality and he is a good role model and a heartthrob to women who have a thing for the square jawed, crew cut, clean shaven look but let’s look at it from a different view. He is unbeatable and consequentially very two-dimensional. He may get his butt handed to him sometimes but he always comes out the victor. That’s why his feud with Kane at the moment is so interesting, he is getting beaten up, his friends are getting beaten up and Kane is steamrolling his way to a possible victory at the Rumble. Also there’s this: why is it that when Zack Ryder was getting over he became John Cena’s ‘best friend’? If they had hung out before it would be different but that makes no sense. John Cena’s rivalry with Randy Orton will be remembered as one of the best in history, but everyone knew who would win. Sadly, I have a feeling WWE is not ready to have John “Superman” Cena lose at the Rumble. That would be too original. I can still hope though. I’ll admit a heel turn would be a welcome change.

2. AJ Styles- AJ is a bit more three dimensional then Cena, but not by much. The real problem I have with him is he always seems to be injured in some way. If his injury frequency was really that high he wouldn’t have a job. Here’s where we really get to the core of it all, one minute he is injured and the next he is ‘the best in TNA’. How does that happen? I have heard TNA was built by his hard work and everything so maybe it’s time for him to go to administration or something. I do like that he can play a good heel though. So that’s something.

3. Alberto Del Rio- Where did he even come from? One minute everything was great and the next minute he is harping about his destiny and whatnot. Don’t get me wrong, he has the skill and is firmly established as a dominate heel but he needed more development to feel legitimate.

4. Daniel Bryan- The decorated NXT d-student is now the World Heavyweight Champion, a heel, who instead of fighting figures out ways to end the match without having to throw his lack of weight around while still holding on to the gold. I like the craftiness of his character, but once again it comes down to lack of development. WWE did not convince me Daniel Bryan was a good wrestler and have yet to do so. Yeah, everyone liked his feud with The Miz, but after that his momentum died and has yet to come back.

Underrated Superstars

1. Yoshi Tatsu- When he came to WWE he hit the ground running. He proved he was one of the best wrestlers to come out of ECW’s superstar initiative with his fast paced style and people liked him. After aligning himself with Christian and the main ECW faces he took Christian to the limit in a title match that he lost. He then started tagging with Gold Dust and they were an interesting combination. However, like most of the ECW superstars after ECW went off the air, his character degraded and he was used as little more than a jobber. Yoshi has the talent and potential to make it up all the way to a main position and people love the energy he has. WWE needs to exploit this and develop Yoshi into a better superstar, maybe give him a secondary title run or something.

2. Mark Henry- He has risen in some sense to where he deserves to be but I honestly feel like he isn’t where he needs to be. Mark Henry is a powerhouse and should still be tearing through the SmackDown roster as a monster heavyweight.

3. Big Show- Show has been around forever it seems and has been just about everything there is to be, now he is losing to Daniel Bryan and crying like a big oaf over something that was obviously a setup. His character is degrading; WWE needs to fix that if Show is going to be a World Champion.

4. The Great Khali- He went from dominate heel to the Khali kiss cam in what would prove to be one of WWE’s biggest mistakes. Khali is a monster; he is the tallest and one of the strongest wrestlers at their disposal so why is he not winning belts left and right? WWE is not good to their monsters, they don’t realize that a clash between these monsters could bring down the house and win them ratings, can you imagine a Hell in a Cell match between the three aforementioned superstars, with a little buildup it would be the match of the year.

5. Christian- That’s right folks, I’m a peep. Does anyone believe his whole heel turn? No, I didn’t think so. How do you go from Captain Charisma to Captain Coward in a period of about a year? ECW Christian wouldn’t have been afraid of a fair fight, he took place in brutal matches throughout his career in WWE and TNA and WWE is trying to sell him as a gutless coward? Sorry, it doesn’t work. Bring back Captain Charisma.

*Well that concludes the Wrestling Special of the RandomPages. I hope you all enjoyed it and found it both informative and entertaining. If you have any requests, suggestions, criticism or anything else to tell me feel free to let me know, shoot me a comment or something. I will be doing some specials eventually that I will need requests for, so you guys have a good day and don’t forget to read the disclaimer. *

*Disclaimer: The RandomPages is written based solely on my opinion, if you have a problem with that let me know. Always remember, opinions are like butts, everybody has one and no one likes to hear anyone else’s. I apologize to the WWE, because no one likes having their problems just laid out there for everyone to see, though to their credit they are doing better. Anyone who feels like they are important enough to make it on my lists but didn’t, I am sorry you think so highly about yourself. I apologize to the performers who made it on my overrated superstars list, I know it’s not your fault your characters suck. I think that about does it, I hope I didn’t miss anything.*