Topic: Wrestling?

Impact this week wasn't bad, but it did great and proving one thing:


A wrestler can lose, and STILL get over.


Christian York vs Jeff Hardy was BY FAR the match of the night. Hardy played the "Ric Flair" role tonight, where he may have won, but by bumping and selling Yorks offense, he managed to get him over and make him look DAMN good in the ring. Similar to what Kurt Angle did for Matt Morgan at Bound For Glory a couple years back.


THAT is how you begin to get your young and up-and-coming talent over, by making them look credible in the ring with your current big name stars. WWE doesn't really do that often anymore. They do occasionally with Ziggler, and they did once with Kofi Kingston, but CM Punk was really the last person they went full on with by having him be credible against bigger stars, and become a bigger star because of it.

Guys like Ric Flair, HBK, Kane, Edge,Bret Hart, Bully Ray, William Regal, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Sting, Mick Foley, and the like, they can go into a match with a lesser name talent, a mid-carder, and, while still winning the match, can make their opponent look good and get them over by selling and bumping for them, and making the audience believe they do have a chance, whatever size, of winning. THAT is how you get the crowd behind somebody. Triple H could do it too, but very rarely has. John Cena can do it, and has a bit in the past, but it never sticks because a fued never ends with him until he wins, and no match ever counts until he wins. Hence why he failed to beat Punk at several PPV's this year, but the only match to "count" so far was when he beat Punk last week on Raw.

Of all the TNA Gut Check Challenge guys so far, Christian York is by and far the best. He should be added to the main roster pronto, I easily see the guy as TV, X Division, or Tag Champ before the end of the year. Never World Champ though, doubt TNA will ever push him that hard.

Christian York is a very good talent, could definitely see him in TNA.

Match quality wise, the WWE is so inferior to TNA that it really hurts to watch sometimes. Even a stiff guy like Hernandez does better matches than most of WWEs midcard, but not cause he's better but most WWE midcard matches are either abbysmally bad booked(AdR vs Santino, wow that was supremely pointless), hillariously short(Brodus Clay vs. Cesaro), lack any story(again AdR vs. Santino, totally out of the blue), include a really bad wrestler(usually a big muscle guy) or job out the midcard belts most of the time(but that changed a bit lately).

Still impressed with Cesaro, even more after that super sick European uppercut from the second rope. This guy should be massively over: Big, techically gifted, confident at the microphone. Definitely a guy for the Main Event for everyone; Indy darling, excellent tag team wrestler and still a big muscle guy with a very good moveset. I thought that Chris Hero was the pick of the litter from the KoW, but calling up Cesaro has made me happy now.

And finally the debut of Dean Ambrose on RAW, I am so glad to see him debut cause that either means he will shoot to the top or be just a guy from now on, not the saviour for the IWC. " title="cookie" />

I liked York after seeing him against Zema last week... or two weeks ago. There were some botches but they recovered well enough it was still an entertaining match. Plus, that understated sob story he told worked for me.

I missed this week's though. Definitely going to rewatch that match at least.

Gotta agree with you TaiKimiya. I'm predisposed toward Cena, always have been, always will be, but maybe the company wants the matches to go down THEIR way or maybe Cena just doesn't have it in him to give us a good sell any more, but what's happening now is just energy destroying. Cena vs. Ziggler last night, a really entertaining match, then we get to the typical ending. Ziggler tries... what was it, three different heel trickery spots? AJ foils one but Cena just powers through them constantly. Why even have the heels do that if it doesn't work against Cena? You don't get that "How dare he!" thrill if it invariably ends with the AA and just makes Ziggler look desperate rather than like someone about to steal a win he didn't earn, such as it is.

And the Shield. Don't know a lot about the guys involved but we've run through so many of these sorts of foiler stables I just don't pay attention. Gotta see if they'll end up down the memory hole or if they get a chance to really come into their own.

Weekly Ryback beatings, however, are not going to get you over. At least play Brodus's theme during the beating for the juxtaposition of violence against whimsy and the combined meta-repetition.

I don't think Cena is unwilling to put other guys over, I guess he has not the pull backstage and had to grab Vince at the balls with a warning that he will walk out if he is not booked different. And why should he do that?

I don't even think he is a terrible wrestler, he's at least average and can do good matches(not necessarily a 5*, but easily a 31/2 or a 4). If even Hogan of all people could put over Warrior, HHH, Rock, Goldberg and Lesnar, Cena can easily put new stars over too if he is allowed too. It's not even that he has to loose any match, just once in a while or with a dirty trick that has massive impact. Watching a program with Cena today is either:
a) A Barney the Dinosaur show where Cena nerver gets angry or changes his routine.
b) A Powerranger show, but only a one shot Ranger show with a one time monster where one of the Rangers has a minor problem that threatens the team, but then rises above stuff.
c) A soap opera where the bad guys are not allowed to go over sometimes.
Believe it or not, I sometimes really feel sorry for the guy. The boos he gets are not on ONS 06 level, but they never go away, not even when he was brutalized be Lesnar.

Booking is just horrible. I blame Creative first, Cena second if he has any say in it.