Sunday, January 8, 2012

History of Wrestling in 2000

The final months of 1999 saw both WWF and WCW lose momentum, with the Big Show winning the WWF title at one of his worst in-ring periods and even defending it in the lower card against the Big Bossman in a terrible feud, and the in-ring product of WCW declining rapidly under Vince Russo's tenure as booker, coupled with a series of nonsensical storylines. On the first Raw of 2000, Big Show lost the title to HHH, ending Big Show's month and a half reign, and returning the title to the main event. HHH would feud hold the title until King Of The Ring, with the exception of a month between Backlash and Judgment Day where Rock was champ, having epic feuds with Mick Foley and The Rock. He'd lose the strap to The Rock once again at King Of The Ring. HHH's WWF title reign in 2000 cemented him as the company's top heel throughout 2000. WCW to start 2000, however, became more of a mess. Bret Hart was the heel champ as leader of the final WCW incarceration of the NWO, NWO 2000, and was scheduled to defend the belt at Souled Out against Sid Vicious. However, he suffered a stroke that ended his in-ring career, so Russo's plan was to put Tank Abbott in the main event and have him become the new champion. However, WCW president Bill Busch thought this was a bad idea, and rightfully so, as Abbott wasn't over, had no charisma and mic skills, and couldn't work a good match. As a result of this, Russo was let go and Kevin Sullivan was put in his place. Sullivan booked his arch-nemesis Chris Benoit as Bret's replacement and had him winning the belt at Souled Out. Benoit won the title at Souled Out, however, he asked for his release after the event and received it, along with Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero. The four would debut a couple weeks later in the WWF as the Radicals. In WCW, all four were in a good position in the midcard, however, they felt there would be more opportunities for them in the WWF as it became clear they'd never break the glass ceiling in WCW. This move also clearly gave the WWF, the promotion known for a focus on the entertainment side of things rather than the in-ring aspect, the better in-ring product, as the Radicals would have some awesome matches in the midcard along with Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho, who also jumped ship from WCW last year. The WWF tag division would also feature some classic matches, mainly the ladder and TLC matches involving Edge and Christian, the Hardy Boyz, and the Dudley Boyz.

To start the Kevin Sullivan era, the championhip was vacant. Sid won the belt on Nitro on January 4, defeating Kevin Nash. Sid would remain champ throughout the Sullivan era, and would turn heel after the Uncensored PPV to feud with Hogan over the belt. Was Sid as champ a success? No. Sid was a weak draw as champion and was very limited in the ring, which showed in the main events. The Sullivan era also led to a return of the nepotism that was rampant in WCW in 1999, as his good friend Prince Iaukea was the cruiserweight champion for the vast majority of the Sullivan era, despite not being over and wrestling a very bland style compared to the other cruisers, and all the younger talent who gained momentum in the Russo era took a back seat to the veterans, as Sid, Jarrett, Flair, Luger, Hogan, and Sting would be featured in the main storylines all year long. Those weren't the only problems, as the storylines in the undercard were very lame with Saturday Night regular Al Greene getting a makeover and becoming The Dog, who did everything dogs do such as chewing clothing, drinking from toilets, and even howling at the moon, Terry Funk and Dustin Rhodes feuding, with a rubber chicken being used as the main weapon throughout the feud, and Stevie Ray turning heel on Booker T with Big T, forming Harlem Heat 2000, which actually resulted in Booker losing the "T" in his name and receiving Leave It To Beaver music as his theme. All of this, along with a decrease in ratings, led to Sullivan getting let go two weeks after the Uncensored PPV. Unfortunately, Vince Russo is hired back as the booker, along with Eric Bischoff. Things would actually be decent for the first couple weeks until a disastrous move occurred.

On the April 26 edition of Thunder, David Arquette would win the world title from DDP in a tag match that featured Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff (DDP would actually celebrate with Arquette despite losing his belt!). I understand why Russo did this, as WCW was a floundering promotion in need of publicity. however, this made WCW come off as a joke. Also, giving an actor the world title sends a message to the locker room that it doesn't matter how hard you work and how many dues you paid over the years. Also, the ratings declined once again after this event and Arquette would actually hold the belt until Slamboree, where he'd lose it to Jeff Jarrett after turning heel. Arquette wrestled in the main event... things would stay bad over the next month, with the shows being paced erratically and title changes happening nearly every show, until late June. Russo would take a leave of absence, and Terry Taylor took his place. This started the main event push of Booker T. For years, he was stuck in the midcard and tag division, and like most others, couldn't break the glass ceiling. Taylor, knowing that WCW was in desperate need of new stars, pushed him rapidly over the next month. Booker finally won the WCW world title at Bash At the Beach from Jeff Jarrett. However, this wasn't the original plan at all.

Hulk Hogan was scheduled to face Jeff Jarrett at Bash At The Beach for the title, after defeating Billy Kidman at the Great American Bash. And the thing is, that due to Hogan's creative control clause, if he were booked to lose the match, he wouldn't wrestle the match at all, meaning that he had to win, or else the fans were screwed of their main event! Russo, who now returned, would actually outsmart Hogan. He booked Hogan to win the title by pinning Jarrett, who laid down for the pin. Russo then came out later in the show, cut a shoot promo on Hogan, and mentioned that the belt Hogan won was the Hogan Memorial Belt, and that Jarrett was still the actual champ with a new WCW title. Russo than made Jarrett vs. Booker for the belt. Hogan never appeared in WCW again.

Shortly after Bash at the Beach, though, things really went downhill. Lance Storm was stuck in a neverending feud with General Rection and the Misfits In Action, Mike Awesome would become the Fat Chick Thriller and later That 70s Guy, Vampiro and Sting had a never ending feud as well, Kronik and the Harris Brothers would have a very boring feud, Goldberg, after a failed heel turn, would redo the streak angle, Allan Funk would become Kwee Wee, a guy infatuated with pink, and Stacy Keibler would be the subject of a pregnancy angle, which would lead to some terrible segments involving David Flair trying to find out who the father was. The only real highlight was that Booker T was WCW's top babyface, even though he'd be subject to some bad booking of his own, as he dropped the title for short intervals before winning it back, even to Russo himself, but Booker was pretty much bulletproof at this point. In early October, Russo was sent home during an Australian tour, and the booking was handled by a committee of Ed Ferrara, Terry Taylor, and Johnny Ace. at Mayhem, Booker would lose the title to Scott Steiner, who would hold the title until WCW's final Nitro, losing it to Booker T. Things would stay the same pretty much until the new year.

At King Of The Ring, The Rock became the new WWF champion. This basically cemented Rock as the top babyface in the absence of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Rock would remain champion until No Mercy, where he lost the title to Kurt Angle. Austin returned in October 2000, feuding with Rikishi, who ran him over at Survivor Series 1999 because he did it for The Rock. Rikishi, who turned heel, feuded with Rock and Austin at the end of 2000, putting them both over, and then going back to the midcard.

While 2000 was a very successful year for the WWF, it was WCW's worst year ever, with them losing $60 million that year, several booking changes, and some very bad storylines. The events of 2000 ended up having a negative impact on wrestling in the future though, as WCW went under in March 2001, and WWF peaked in popularity in 2000.

Friday, January 6, 2012

History of WWE in 2010

To begin 2010, Sheamus and The Undertaker were the Raw and Smackdown champions. Undertaker won the world title from CM Punk at Hell In A Cell and Sheamus defeated John Cena for the WWE title at TLC. Undertaker had a solid reign as champ, despite not wrestling very often; however, Sheamus wasn't a strong champ for many different reasons. First off, he won the belt a month after debuting on Raw from the ECW brand. Basically, he was a rookie, and fans took it as Sheamus being shoved down their throats. And secondly, he never got a convincing win as champ. Both Sheamus and Undertaker lost their titles at the Elimination Chamber PPV, to Cena and Chris Jericho respectively. Cena would lose his belt to Batista, who has been a heel for the last few months, a few minutes later. The main feuds heading into Wrestlemania were Cena vs. Batista, Edge vs. Chris Jericho, Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, and Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon. Michaels, after losing to Undertaker in an epic encounter at Wrestlemania 25, wants a rematch with Undertaker. Undertaker accepts, only if Michaels puts his career on the line. Michaels accepts, and at Wrestlemania, Undertaker wins to go 18-0 at the event, and Michaels has a retirement ceremony the next night on Raw, a fitting ending to an excellent career. Bret returns to WWE programming on January 4th, as a counter to TNA Impact making their Monday night debut. That night, Bret and Shawn finally bury the hatchet, and Bret has his sights set on revenge against Vince McMahon, the mastermind of the Montreal Screwjob. They have a heated, and generally well-received feud, despite some fans questioning the decision of putting Bret in the ring after the stroke that ended his career. The match takes place at Wrestlemania, and consists of Bret beating up Vince for several minutes without giving up any offense. The match was not well-received. Cena wins back the WWE title at the show while Jericho retains. 2010 starts to really go downhill after this event, though.

The next night on Raw, Jack Swagger, who won the MITB briefcase at Wrestlemania, cashes in on Chris Jericho to become the new world heavyweight champion. This turned out to be a very bad move as Swagger just wasn't ready. His wrestling skills were good, but not main event caliber, and his mic skills were not nearly on the level as they should be for a world champion, plus in the months leading up to Wrestlemania, he was mainly wrestling on Superstars. His reign was badly booked, as he rarely won clean, and he lost it at Fatal 4 Way to Rey Mysterio. Also, the ECW brand was discontinued in early February, with NXT replacing it. As a result, most of the ECW wrestlers were moved to Raw and Smackdown, meaning that wrestlers from those shows who weren't used very often had to be let go to make room for these ECW wrestlers, and it also meant that the rising stars on ECW, such as Zack Ryder and Yoshi Tatsu, were now mused mainly as enhancement talent. Cena continues to feud with Batista until Over The Limit, where Cena retains the gold. This was Batista's final match in WWE.

The WWE product treads water throughout the spring, with very little going on on either show (Smackdown loses nearly all of its star power in the draft, which leaves the likes of Kane and Rey Mysterio to main event throughout the year, and the guest host stuff from 2009 is still going strong in the first half of 2010 on Raw). On June 7, however, things would get VERY interesting. John Cena and CM Punk are main eventing, and during the match, Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Daniel Bryan, Skip Sheffield, David Otunga, Michael Tarver, and Darren Young, all from the first season of NXT, attack both Cena and Punk, as well as cameramen, timekeepers, and commentators at ringside, and DESTROY the ringside area. This creates a massive buzz amongst the fans, both casual, and online, and Cena vs. Nexus is the main storyline throughout the rest of the year, as they cost Cena the WWE title against Sheamus at the Fatal 4 Way PPV against Sheamus, and cost him his rematch against Sheamus at Money In The Bank. However, WWE continually drops the ball with Nexus throughout the storyline. Daniel Bryan is released a few days later for choking somebody at ringside with a tie because it wasn't PG. He'd return at Summerslam as a babyface against Nexus, but as a result of Bryan's release, Nexus lacked a workhorse who could put on quality matches every night. At Summerslam, Nexus lost to the team of Cena, Edge, Chris Jericho, R-Truth, John Morrison, Bret Hart, and Daniel Bryan in an elimination match. While the babyface team at a big 4 PPV, with a legend and a big return on the team, should win, most fans consider this the point where Nexus started to go downhill. However, that happened shortly after.

The night after Summerslam, Darren Young would be kicked out of Nexus after losing to John Cena, shortly after, Skip Sheffield injured his ankle, taking him off of TV as a result, leaving Nexus as a 5 man group. At Hell In A Cell, Barrett defeated John Cena, forcing Cena to join the Nexus. The next night, however, Cena and Michael Tarver would lose to Mark Henry and Evan Bourne, and Cena viciously attacks Tarver after the match, writing him off TV, and indirectly getting Barrett's approval as Tarver was seen as a weak link of the group. Over the next few weeks, Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty from the second season of NXT would join Nexus. At Survivor Series, Barrett would face Randy Orton, who defeated Sheamus for the belt at Night Of Champions, for the WWE title. Cena was the guest referee and if Orton won, Cena would be out of Nexus, and out of the WWE as well! Fans were looking forward to the Cena heel turn they were dying for... at Survivor Series, however, Orton retained, and Cena was out of WWE. Very disappointing result. Orton would lose the belt to The Miz the next night on Raw. Despite the stipulation, Cena still showed up on Raw, and defeated Barrett at TLC in a chairs match. Cena was now reinstated. The hottest angle of the summer ended in a return to the status quo.

On Smackdown, Rey defeated Jack Swagger in a rematch at Money In The Bank, before losing it to Kane shortly afterward, who cashed in his MITB briefcase. Kane had a lengthy run with the belt that he deserved, despite some bad storylines with the Undertaker "vegetative state" angle, which did result in Kane going over Undertaker several times, and the feud with Edge that consisted of Edge kidnapping Paul Bearer and teasing Kane by injuring a mannequin version in a wheel chair. Kane lost it to Edge at TLC.

2010 was a lackluster year for WWE. Instead of slowly building new stars, they panicked and pushed them to the title out of nowhere. Their main storyline, Nexus, resulted in a return to the status quo as none of the Nexus members finished 2010 in a better position than they started in. Also, a very subpar TV product for both Raw and Smackdown as well. 2011 would be the year they return to making new stars the right way.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

History of TNA in 2011

At the beginning of 2011, Jeff Hardy is the TNA champion. Heading into Genesis, Mr. Anderson is the #1 contender. At Genesis, Anderson defeats Hardy to become the new champ. TNA has a chance to create a main event star of their own... however, Hardy wins it back at Against All Odds. The TNA product is already very bad, with Impact featuring a lot of lame and boring storylines, confusing booking, and less and less good matches, but it starts getting even worse. On March 3, Sting returns after "3/3/11" vignettes similar to WWE's "2/21/11" vignettes hyping the Undertaker's return, and defeats Hardy to win the belt in his first match back. This was a very bad booking decision in that Sting doesn't need the belt anymore, it gave the vibe that veteran talent from other promotions are more important than their younger talent, and that it made Anderson even more of a lame duck champion than before. It would get even worse.

At Victory Road 2011, Jeff Hardy would have a rematch against Sting for the title. However, he was under the influence shortly before their match, and couldn't have a proper match as a result. The logical thing to do would be to suspend or fire him and have someone who was talented and ready take his place. That didn't happen. TNA brought out Hardy, under the influence of drugs, to have the "match" with Sting. The main event involved Hardy making a fool of himself and lasted all of a minute with Sting giving him the Scorpion Deathdrop and having to pin him in a shoot position as Hardy tried his hardest to kick out. The Impact Zone crowd was in disapproval, to which Sting yelled "I agree!" back at them. This event alone severely damaged TNA's reputation and hardy was sent home for several months as a result.

After Victory Road, Sting feuded with Anderson and Rob Van Dam and the product continued to flounder until after the Sacrifice PPV in May. Impact became known as Impact Wrestling and a major storyline began. Abyss defeated Kazarian for the X Division title in an attempt by Hogan and Bischoff to destroy the X Division. Abyss held the belt until Destination X, an all X Division PPV that year, where he lost the belt to Brian Kendrick. This saved the X Division and "the network" put a weight limit on the X Division shortly after to prevent something like that from happening again. The X Division has consistently been featured on Impact every week since May after floundering for several years.

Sting holds the TNA title until Slammiversary where Mr. Anderson, now as a heel, wins the belt. After this match, Sting gets a career revival as he dons Joker-esque face paint and acts insane, which fans start calling him "Joker Sting" as a result. Anderson, who joins Immortal afterwards, has another one month title reign, as he loses it back to Sting on the Impact after Destination X. Sting feuds with Kurt Angle heading into Hardcore Justice, where Angle wins after turning heel. Anderson turns face again on the Impact after Hardcore Justice as well. Angle successfully defends the belt against Sting and Anderson at No Surrender.

Meanwhile, throughout the summer, the Bound For Glory series takes place. Several wrestlers take part in a series of matches against each other where pinfalls are worth 5 points, submissions are worth 10 points, and DQ losses are worth minus 10 points. Crimson is on top of the series throughout until he gets taken out by Samoa Joe, who had -10 points at the time and went into a rage as a result (this was a good decision as Crimson clearly wasn't ready to main event the biggest PPV of the year). Bobby Roode ends up winning the series and faces Angle at Bound For Glory. The match has an excellent build, however Angle wins, resulting in a major disappointment. This bad booking decision gets easily fixed though, as Roode's Beer Money partner James Storm wins the belt on the next Impact, only to lose it to Roode two weeks later after a heel turn. Roode feuds with AJ Styles to end 2011. Roode, Storm, and AJ are all in the title picture to finish 2011.

The main feud of 2011, however, is Sting vs. Hulk Hogan. As "Joker" Sting, Sting stops at nothing to try and bring back the old, babyface, Hulkamania Hulk Hogan. Before their match at Bound For Glory, it almost seems hopeless. However, at Bound For Glory, after Sting defeats him, Hogan helps Sting clean house on the rest of Immortal! As a result of Sting's victory, Dixie Carter regains control of TNA from Hogan and Bischoff, who took control over TNA in October of 2010, and Hogan only makes one appearance on the Impact after BFG before taking himself off TV.

2011 is a very solid year for TNA, with new main eventers being made, the X Division returning to a more prominent role, and a much improved product in the second half of 2011 over the first half. No, it's not perfect, it's far from it, but baby steps...

History of WWE in 2011

At the beginning of 2011, Edge and The Miz were the WWE and World Champions. Both of their reigns, however, were really lackluster, as Edge's character was becoming really stale with many fans and Miz couldn't get a clean win over anyone while feuding with Jerry Lawler. Edge feuded with Dolph Ziggler to start 2011, a feud in which he actually lost the title for 10 seconds before winning it back. Bad booking! After retaining in their feuds with Dolph and Lawler, Edge and Miz began feuding with Alberto Del Rio and John Cena. Do their title reigns improve here? Well, not really. Edge and Del Rio's Wrestlemania match opened the show (yes, a world title match OPENED THE SHOW!), and Miz took a backseat to The Rock throughout his feud with Cena. At Wrestlemania, Edge retained in what would unfortunately be his final match due to all his injuries catching up with him, and Miz retained against Cena, albeit after a Rock Bottom on Cena. Miz still can't win clean... as a result of Edge's retirement, his best friend and former tag partner, Christian and Del Rio feud over the vacant title heading into Extreme Rules, while Miz and Cena continue their feud, with next year's Wrestlemania main event already announced in Cena vs. Rock. Cena wins the WWE title once again while Christian finally wins the big one. Things are great, right? Wrong.

On Smackdown, Randy Orton, who was drafted to Smackdown the previous week, gets a title shot against Christian. Orton defeats Christian to become the new champ, leaving many of the fans feel "trolled" by WWE. Over the next few months, Cena and Orton are booked as dominant face champs, rarely losing against anybody. The feelings of many of the fans was "same old, same old". Meanwhile, the other main storyline going on at this time was between two announcers, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler. When NXT debuted in early 2010, Cole started to turn heel, as he ragged on Daniel Bryan for being a "nerd" and "internet darling". By the end of 2010, he started rooting against most of the babyfaces while rooting for the heels. However, unlike heel announcers before, he felt that he was above his broadcast partner Jerry Lawler, and mentioned how he and Jim Ross were washed up on numerous occasions. This culminates in a match at Wrestlemania, as Lawler has yet to have a Wrestlemania match in his career. Logical booking dictates that Lawler goes over and ends the feud. However, Cole won, and the feud dragged out until the Over The Limit PPV in May, with Lawler finally defeating Cole in a Kiss My Foot match. Nearly half of the year was wasted on an announcer feud that could have instead been used to get a few wrestlers who actually have a future over...

Orton feuds with Christian throughout the spring and summer, with Christian turning heel in early June and winning the belt back at the Money In The Bank PPV via DQ and losing it back to Orton at Summerslam. The feud lasted three months but felt like it lasted twice as long, as there were at least six matches between the two between May-August and Christian never got one convincing victory over Orton in those three months. Not one! Christian would continue to fall down the card, feuding with Sheamus and not being able to defeat him either, before getting injured. Cena's reign was ho-hum as it felt stale, despite an entertaining feud with R-Truth heading into the Capitol Punishment PPV, though that was mainly due to R-Truth's crazy comedy heel schtick. Cena would remain untested until after Capitol Punishment, when CM Punk became #1 contender. CM Punk in 2011 is a very interesting story. In the first half of 2011, he was the leader of the New Nexus, a stable consisting of David Otunga, Michael McGillicutty, and Mason Ryan. None of these guys had any charisma whatsoever and all of them were very green in the ring, making for a VERY boring stable. Punk was also booked as a "jobber to the stars" throughout this time and during all of 2010, not winning one PPV match for over a year even! There were rumors that he'd let his contract expire in the summer due to not being happy about his creative direction. WWE becomes smart and decides to give Punk a huge main event push and uses his contract situation in the storyline to create interest. On June 20, he wins a #1 contender's match, and mentions that when he wins the title at Money In The Bank, he'll leave WWE with the title. Interesting, right? But that's not the big promo. The next week on Raw, he cuts a worked shoot promo, bashing WWE and Vince McMahon until getting his mic cut off! To add even more realism, he gets suspended afterwards until the next Raw where Cena wants him reinstated or else he'll walk out himself. Punk gets reinstated, but if Cena loses, he'll be fired! Cena and Punk face off at Money In The Bank, and Punk actually wins the title, and leaves the arena with the belt! WWE took a huge risk, which is rare for them when there's no legit competition. Cena's fired right? Well, the stipulation didn't go well with the Board of Directors, as they had HHH replace Vince as COO right before he'd fire Cena. Rey Mysterio and Miz made it to the finals of a tournament to crown the new WWE champ, and they wrestled in a match the next week to open the show, with Rey winning. HHH grants Cena his rematch, and he defeats Rey to become the new champ. Punk returns after the match, with a new look and theme music (Cult Of Personality), as well as the WWE title! They have a match at Summerslam to determine who the real champ is, and Punk wins again, until Kevin Nash returns, jackknifes Punk, and Alberto Del Rio cashes in MITB to become the new WWE champ.

After Summerslam, the Raw product that gained so much momentum after Capitol Punishment, declined rapidly, with the majority of the shows being very poorly written and booked for the next few months. Del Rio feuds with Cena after Summerslam while Punk feuds with Nash. However, Nash isn't cleared to wrestle yet so Punk faces HHH, who he believes is secretly conspiring with Nash against him, at Night of Champions. HHH defeats Punk, despite Miz, R-Truth, and Nash trying to make him lose. At Hell In a Cell, Punk becomes #1 contender for the WWE title along with Del Rio, who lost the belt to Cena at NOC, and loses as Del Rio reclaims the belt. Punk starts losing even more momentum, as he and HHH team up against Awesome Truth at Vengeance, with Punk taking the pin. Punk then becomes #1 contender to Alberto Del Rio's WWE title, as Del Rio retained at Vengeance against Cena. At Survivor Series, Punk regains the championship and holds it for the rest of the year.

Smackdown, however, maintains its momentum for the most part, mainly because of Mark Henry being built up as a dominant heel. At Night Of Champions, Henry defeats Randy Orton to win his first world title in his 15 year career. Orton goes on to feud with midcard heels in Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett afterwards in very good feuds. Henry has a dominant reign, until he feuds with the Big Show, who he put out of action at Money In The Bank. Henry would never get a clean win over Big Show in a two month feud, that felt twice as long, that ends at TLC with Big Show winning, then losing to Daniel Bryan, who cashed in MITB after Henry attacked Big Show after the match.

Despite the lacking TV product for much of 2011, especially in the first half, 2011 is known for one major success story in Zack Ryder. In 2010, Ryder was a heel jobber, who rarely appeared on Raw unless he was getting squashed. In early 2010, he debuts his youtube show titled Z, The True Long Island Story to make a last ditch effort to get over with the fans. While he continued to be a Superstars regular throughout the first half of 2011, his crowd reactions get more and more louder, to a point where WWE has little choice but to give him a shot. By the summer, he turns face and then feuds with Dolph Ziggler over the US title throughout the fall and winter, getting numerous victories over Dolph to build him up. At the TLC PPV, Ryder wins the US title to a huge reaction, resulting in a very feel-good end to 2011 for him.

While both Raw and Smackdown were inconsistent for much of the year (especially Raw), 2011 was a very good year for WWE, as it served as a transitional year. Cena and Orton became less of a focus as the year went on and the likes of Punk, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, and Wade Barrett are all on a path to the main event or are main eventing as of right now. You could call it the second "new generation".

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

History of TNA in 2010

To close out 2009, AJ Styles was the TNA champion, Beer Money were the tag champs, Amazing Red was the X Division champ, Tara was the Knockouts champ, and Taylor Wilde/Sarita were the Knockouts tag champs. Things were good in TNA, right? Right. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff were about to debut on the first Impact of 2010, which was the first ever Monday night Impact. This was supposed to be the big move that boosted TNA to becoming a legit competitor to WWE. Was it a success?

The 1/4/10 Impact had plenty of positives about it, such as gaining their biggest rating ever, having two really good matches in Taylor/Sarita vs. Kong/Hamada and AJ vs. Angle for the title, the return of Jeff Hardy, who was a top draw for WWE in 2009, and basically giving the jaded WWE fans an alternative on Monday nights for the first time in 9 years. However, things quickly took a turn for the worst, and fast! Just like in WCW, Hogan's TNA debut featured the debuts of many of his friends, such as the Nasty Boys and Bubba The Love Sponge, who was never involved in wrestling before and gave TNA A LOT of negative press (neither he or the Nasties would last half a year), especially regarding Awesome Kong, as they had two confrontations based on some disgusting twitter remarks by Bubba regarding the Haiti relief fund, with Kong released after the first and Bubba released after the second, as well as Scott Hall and X-Pac, who were way past their primes, and numerous WWE Heat/Velocity wrestlers like Val Venis, Orlando Jordan, and Shannon Moore. All of these new hirings alienated most of TNA's core fanbase, especially seeing as they all debuted in the matter of two weeks. The Genesis PPV on 1/17 was a turning point for TNA, as Val Venis defeated Christopher Daniels, the Nasty Boys were put into a "dream match" feud with Team 3D, and the face of TNA, AJ Styles, turned heel on Kurt Angle in the main event, becoming a heel champ with a "Flair Jr." gimmick. Granted, AJ did as well as he could with the gimmick, but all of these decisions made the fanbase feel betrayed, even the fans in the Impact Zone, who never pay to get in. As a result of their reaction at Genesis, the Impact Zone fans are now referred to as "cast members" and are told who to cheer and boo. The Impact Zone hasn't been the same since. On the next Impact, AJ defeated Angle in TNA's own rehash of the Montreal Screwjob, dubbed by fans as the "Orlando Screwjob", making fans even more angry.

Things stay bad for a while, with bad storylines (Nastys/3D, Joe losing to Orlando Jordan only to get abducted by ninjas, and never being referenced again, Abyss gaining superhuman powers from Hogan's WWE Hall Of Fame ring, which was as bad as the shits on Raw in 2009) and bad gimmicks ("The Band", which was Nash, Hall, and X-Pac reunited, with Nash's WCW music without lyrics as their theme, making them come off as bush league, AJ Flair, Orlando Jordan) until March 8, when they began competing against Raw on Monday nights. While I admire TNA finally taking a risk in order to grow, they simply weren't ready. The 2010 Monday Night Wars only lasted two months, as TNA lost around half their viewers to Raw, despite TNA putting on some of their better shows of 2010 at this time (the show after Lockdown, the show after Destination X) and some of their best feuds such as AJ/Pope and Angle/Anderson, which was probably the best feud in wrestling that year. These two months featured the infamous Lockbox Showdown, which was an elimination match where the winners got to open boxes (one was a KO title shot, one was Tara's spider Poison, one was a contract to wrestle anyone under any stipulation, and the other was a striptease). Actually a good match but the stipulation was very convoluted and the show ended with the striptease! RVD also won the title from AJ on April 19, which angered many fans as RVD just debuted in TNA in March and his title win was extremely rushed. On May 14, TNA returns to Thursdays.

When TNA returns to their traditional Thursday night timeslot, the next few months are considered some of TNA's best programming of the year. Coincidentally, this was when Jay Lethal was on fire! After floundering for two years since the lame love triangle with Sonjay Dutt and So Cal Val under the Black Machismo gimmick, he shows up on Impact impersonating Ric Flair. This garners a huge reaction from the fans and smartly, TNA takes notice. He defeats AJ Styles at Slammiversary before finally facing the Nature Boy at Victory Road, in which he won with the figure four! Lethal gets a HUGE rub... until he loses clean to Jeff Hardy on the next Impact and loses the rematch to Flair a few weeks later, albeit interference from Douglas Williams, who was the X division champ. Yep, Lethal's back where he started... he defeats Williams on Impact in September, rarely appears, before losing it to Robbie E at Turning Point and getting released in 2011. After Victory Road, things go downhill once again, fast! RVD's title reign is very lackluster, as he lacks any motivation in the ring, and Ric Flair's stable of Fourtune (Styles, Beer Money, Kazarian, Matt Morgan, Douglas Williams) begins a feud with EV 2.0, which is a stable of ECW originals that forms after Victory Road before TNA's ECW tribute PPV in August, Hardcore Justice (RVD, Sabu, Raven, Rhino, Tommy Dreamer, Little Guido, Tony Mamaluke, Stevie Richards, Sandman). The feud was dull and lasted until November, and limited what the wrestlers in Fourtune could do in the ring as the majority of EV 2.0 lacked in in-ring talent due to age. Abyss feuded with RVD throughout the summer, and caused him to forfeit his title after "hitting him" with Janice, which was a 2x4 with nails sticking out of it. While feuding with RVD, he promoted the debut of "They", and he announced that "They" would come on 10/10/10, which was the date of Bound For Glory. The main positive of the summer was the Beer Money/Motor City Machine Guns best of 5 series, which the Guns won 3-2, culminating in an epic 2 out of 3 falls match on the 8/15 Impact, dubbed "The Whole F'n Show". If you love tag team and hgh-flying wrestling, check out the entire series!

At Bound For Glory, the main event for the title was Angle vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson. During the match, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett, and Hulk Hogan interfered on the behalf of the least likely person to turn heel in the match, Jeff Hardy. Hardy wins the belt and turns heel as "They" was Bischoff, Hogan, Jarrett, Abyss, Hardy, and Fourtune. The faction would name itself Immortal. Hardy was a good heel champ and he kept the title to close out 2010. It was also revealed that Dixie indirectly signed control of TNA to Hogan and Bischoff as well.

In general, 2010 was a very damaging year for TNA. Bad press, bad ratings, bad storylines, no new stars were made, and a bunch of disappointments in general. Unfortunately, it only got worse in 2011 before any improvement occurred.

Monday, January 2, 2012

History of WWE in 2009

Heading into 2009, Jeff Hardy and John Cena were the champions of WWE. Cena was the Raw champion whereas Hardy was the Smackdown champion. Cena won the belt from Chris Jericho at Survivor Series in his return match from injury, while Hardy won it from Edge at Armageddon. Both reigns were short, as Cena lost it to Edge at No Way Out and Hardy lost to Edge at the Royal Rumble, who then lost to HHH at No Way Out. The main feuds heading into Wrestlemania were HHH vs. Randy Orton and Cena vs. Edge/Big Show. The Orton/HHH feud was much better received than the Cena feud, though personally, both were bad (cannot forget HHH invading Orton's home, throwing him through the window, and Orton getting up 10-20 seconds later and NOT BLEEDING, and HHH squashing Cody in a regular match that turned into a cage match that turned into a no DQ match without any announcement). At Wrestlemania, Cena overcame Edge and Big Show, while HHH retained to a bad reaction from internet fans. However, Orton won it a month later at Backlash while Edge won the title back from Cena after Big Show chokeslammed him through a light off the stage.

After Backlash, Smackdown put on some excellent wrestling-based programs for several months, while Raw was subject to some of the worst programming in history for the rest of the year. Orton feuded with Batista in a VERY boring feud while Edge feuded with Jeff Hardy in a very good feud. Both Orton and Edge retained at Judgment Day whereas at Extreme Rules, both Orton and Edge lost to Batista and Hardy respectively. Batista won despite being injured and having to be out for several months, and ended up losing it back to Orton the next night on Raw, making the decision make even LESS sense than before. Hardy defeated Edge, yet lost it to CM Punk a minute or so later as he had the MITB briefcase. Punk and Hardy had an epic feud that lasted throughout the summer, with Punk turning heel in July and Hardy winning the belt at the Night of Champions PPV, until Punk won it back at Summerslam and then defeating Hardy on Smackdown that week to retire him from WWE. After the feud with Batista, Orton had an even more boring feud with HHH, and it was a feud that neither gained anything from as their matches all lacked clean finishes. It lasted until Night of Champions and Orton retained the gold throughout the feud. Orton then feuded with John Cena, and their feud was only slightly better as they've feuded several times in the past. Cena and Orton traded the title throughout their feud, with Cena winning it at Breaking Point, Orton winning it back at Hell In A Cell, and Cena winning it back at Bragging Rights to end the feud. Cena then feuded with HHH and Shawn Michaels, which was a terrible feud that Hornswoggle (HORNSWOGGLE!) was the main focus of. The title took a backseat to a midget... Cena retained at Survivor Series and then feuded with Sheamus, who was fresh off debuting in ECW. Cena lost the title to Sheamus, before he was ready, in fluke fashion to close out 2009. After ending Jeff Hardy's WWE career, CM Punk feuded with the Undertaker. The feud was very lackluster, with Punk retaining at Breaking Point after a rehash of the Montreal screwjob, and then losing to Undertaker at Hell In A Cell. Punk would tread water for nearly two years after that loss, leading two very weak stables in the Straight Edge Society and the New Nexus. After defeating Punk, Undertaker would feud with Batista, who turned heel, to close out the year. The quality of Smackdown would also decline after the Montreal Screwjob 2009, as the match quality also declined as well as the storyline quality (Piggy James, Eric Escobar vs. Vickie Guerrero)

Despite Raw's poor booking in the main event scene, that wasn't the worst part of the product in 2009. No, it wasn't the quality of the wrestlers on the show or the quality of the matches either (though that was a problem too). Nearly every week on Raw in 2009, there was at least one segment on the show that made you cringe and facepalm. Jillian/Festus singoff, Vickie/"Santina" match, Vickie pouring pig slop on Santino, Vince/Kroeke opening segment (it was a fake Stan Kroenke), the entire Hornswoggle/Chavo series, Raw's Got Talent, Diva Bowl, Little People's Court, any backstage segment involving Hornswoggle or the guest hosts, Jeremy Piven/Dr. Ken opening segment, random girl chasing a guy in a tiger suit with a golf club around the ring (an attempt at a clever play on Tiger Woods' divorce), etc... all in the same year!

2009 was not a good year for the WWE, as the status quo from the last few years was getting really stale, Hardy was the only new star really made (Punk's arguable but he had to be rebuilt again in 2011 as he was planning on leaving prior to the big push when he had no momentum) and he left that same year, and some of the worst programming in WWE history was in 2009.

History of the WWE Ruthless Aggression Era (2002-2005)

At Wrestlemania 18 (or Wrestlemania X-8), the WWF was at the midst of a decline in popularity. The buildup to the show featured some really bad storylines, such as Edge and Booker T, two very talented wrestlers, fighting over a role in a Japanese shampoo commercial, and Jericho, the WORLD CHAMPION, being Stephanie McMahon's lackey against HHH in a feud that had them run over HHH's dog. The show had Rock go over Hulk Hogan, Austin go over Scott Hall convincingly, Angle go over Kane, Undertaker go over Ric Flair, Edge go over Booker, RVD go over Regal, Jazz over Lita and Trish, and HHH defeat Jericho for the undisputed championship. Despite most of the booking decisions being good ones, the majority of the fans did not approve of HHH winning, and the ratings kept declining. Shortly after WM, the WWF implemented the brand split, which meant that Raw and Smackdown would each have seperate rosters. This was actually a good idea, as it spread the established stars like Rock, Austin, HHH, and Undertaker between both shows and would allow more younger talent to get main event opportunities. However, there was a problem...

One show was clearly better than the other! Smackdown clearly featured the superior in-ring product and allowed wrestlers like Edge, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, and Chris Benoit to rise up the card, whereas Raw was more focused on the veteran talent while featuring matches that lasted 5 minutes or less and some really lame, boring, or offensive storylines (HLA, Katie Vick, NWO return, Test vs. Steiner, Kane vs. Shane McMahon, JR/King vs. Coach/Al Snow to name a few). This was the case throughout 2002 and 2003. Shortly after the brand split's implementation, the WWF changed their name to WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment. This was due to losing a lawsuit to the World Wildlife Fund, which also went by the WWF acronym. Despite losing their name, they're still allowed to show all the WWF logos on TV other than the Attitude era logo. In June 2002, Steve Austin walked out on the company after being booked to lose to Brock Lesnar in a King Of The Ring qualifier, because the match had no buildup and he felt that a match with Lesnar was a moneymaker and booking them in a TV match with no build was a big mistake, which it was. Austin would return in 2003 though, and put over The Rock at Wrestlemania in his last match.

In July 2002, HHH nd Brock Lesnar switched brands as HHH went to Raw and Lesnar went to Smackdown. Raw was clearly struggling prior to this move, but things were about to get worse while Smackdown would begin to put on some of the best programming in the show's history with the Smackdown Six (Edge, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio) putting on some extraordinary bouts on PPV AND Smackdown. Raw was actually the best it was all year heading into Summerslam with a very good feud between HHH and the returning Shawn Michaels, which had Michaels winning at Summerslam. However, all momentum for Raw was lost for several months when HHH was handed the WCW world title from Eric Bischoff, which became Raw's world title. Outside of one month between Survivor Series and Armageddon, in which HHH lost the title to Shawn Michaels, HHH was champ for basically a whole year, as a heel! This alienated the fanbase, who were used to seeing shorter reigns in the Attitude era and long face reigns in the New Generation and Hulkamania eras. It's not like HHH's feuds were good in his reign either, as his feud with Kane was revolved around how Kane was a murderer because of drunk driving (the less said about this, the better), his feud with Scott Steiner was filled with bad matches and built up with lame competitions like posedowns, his feud with Booker T involved racist comments by HHH, his feud with Kevin Nash was VERY boring, and his feud with Goldberg was okay but featured weak matches. Goldberg dethroned HHH at Unforgiven 2003, but it was seen as a month too late by most fans. Goldberg's reign as champion was very mediocre, as he mainly wrestled midcarders like Jericho, Kane, and MARK HENRY while it was obvious that he was keeping the belt warm for HHH while he was filming a movie. HHH returned at Survivor Series 2002 for his rematch, with Goldberg retaining. HHH shouldn't have anymore opportunities, right? Wrong. HHH wins it back at Armageddon from Goldberg in a threeway with Kane.

Smackdown, however, was doing very well in 2003. Kurt Angle was the heel champ heading into 2003, and began feuding with Brock Lesnar, who turned face at Survivor Series after being screwed by Paul Heyman in a match with the Big Show. Angle psuedo-turned face after Survivor Series to challenge Big Show at Armageddon. He won, and on the next Smackdown, he revealed that Heyman was on his side all along. When Lesnar returned, he went after the WWE championship. Before their match against Wrestlemania, Angle broke his neck, but the match still happened. Lesnar won at WM in an excellent match. Contrary to HHH, Lesnar had a solid reign as champion, successfully defending for three months against the likes of John Cena and the Big Show before losing it back to Angle at Vengeance, except that Angle returned as a face. Upset after losing his title, Lesnar turned heel on the next Smackdown and had some vicious squash matches against the likes of Brian Kendrick, Paul London, and Zack Gowen heading into Summerslam. At Summerslam, Angle retained but lost it a few weeks later in a classic ironman match on Smackdown. Lesnar had another good reign as a heel champ, defending against the likes of Rey Mysterio and Chris Benoit before losing it to Eddie Guerrero at No Way Out 2003, which was a very special moment. The difference in the quality of Raw and Smackdown was like night and day!

On Raw, HHH's reign after Armageddon was much better than his previous run, as he had some excellent matches with Shawn Michaels and the feud with Michaels and Chris Benoit, who won the Rumble and chose to challenge HHH, was very well done. At Wrestlemania, the unexpected happened as Benoit won the gold... while making HHH tap! Benoit and Eddie Guerrero celebrated in the ring together after the match, although nobody expected what was coming a few years later. Brock Lesnar, however, would leave WWE after this show, as he was burnt out from the schedule and wanted to try out for the Minnesota Vikings. It didn't work out, and Lesnar couldn't wrestle for any other company but WWE due to a ridiculously long no compete clause. Lesnar went to court over it and won, and Lesnar has barely been mentioned on WWE since. The main star WWE built up in 2002 and 2003 is gone...

After Wrestlemania, Raw and Smackdown switched places, as Raw was now the "wrestling" show with more structure and Smackdown was the "entertainment" show. Between March and August, Raw contained several excellent matches between Orton, Batista, Edge, Shelton Benjamin, Benoit, Flair, HHH, Jericho, Christian, and even Tajiri! Smackdown was full of terrible feuds for most of the year, such as Chavo/Jacqueline, Undertaker/Booker T, Undertaker/Dudleys, Undertaker/Heidenreich, Cena/Carlito (Jesus, Carlito's accomplice, stabbed Cena in a bar), and Dawn/Jackie/Haas, while the cruiserweight division, which was the staple of Smackdown throughout 2002-2003, was mainly relegated to Velocity while many of the cruisers were released in the summer of 2005 (the division was scrapped in 2007). On Raw, Benoit had an excellent title reign, defeating HHH and Michaels at Backlash in a rematch, Kane at Bad Blood, and HHH in rematches at Vengeance and on Raw in an ironman match, before losing to Orton at Summerslam. This was very interesting, as Orton was champ over HHH, who was also in Evolution. What happens? Orton turns face on the next Raw after being beat down by HHH, Flair, and Batista. Orton couldn't play a good face and wasn't good enough in the ring yet, so he lost it back to HHH at Unforgiven one month later. All the momentum over the last year went down the drain. For the rest of the year, Raw went back to being the entertainment show, along with Smackdown. At this time, both shows were full of some of the greenest OVW callups... the likes of Heidenreich, Snitsky, Kenzo Suzuki, Tyson Tomko, Sylvain Grenier, Rene Dupree, Matt Morgan, Luther Reigns, Orlando Jordan, and Chris Masters, the most of whom were roided up hosses (the majority of these people were either suspended for it or admitted their usage), filled out the midcard and hurt the in-ring product. In November 2004, the staple of Raw, the women's division, was dismantled as Jazz, Nidia, and Gail Kim were all released, and were replaced by the likes of Christy Hemme, Maria, and Candice Michelle, Lita got injured in January and didn't wrestle much at all afterwards until the summer of 2006, and in April, Molly Holly asked for her own release and Trish Stratus was out injured for several months and DIDN'T drop the title which meant no women's title to fight for. The women's division has yet to recover from all that. After the November releases, bra and panties matches, bikini contests, and pillow fights, which were always common on Smackdown with the likes of Torrie Wilson, Dawn Marie, Miss Jackie, and Sable, who were there for eye candy, on the show, would be more and more prevalent on Raw for several years.

On Smackdown, Eddie Guerrero was champ and doing well. After the draft, his next challenger was John Bradshaw Layfield, commonly known as JBL. This caused an outrage among fans as Bradshaw wasn't the best in the ring and before getting the big push, he was in the APA on Velocity. JBL also only wrestled one match before his match with Eddie at Judgment Day, against El Gran Luchadore, who was Paul London under a mask. Eddie retained, but by DQ, so the feud continued. The feud got worse, with Eddie continually getting arrested and even fainting during a match. At the next PPV, the Great American Bash, one of several weak PPV cards in 2004, JBL finally won the title from Eddie. The fans' reaction to JBL was still unsatisfactory until late in his reign, when his promo ability really started to shine and the way he was booked as champ really started to click. In early 2005, JBL feuded with John Cena, who was still very much over with the casual fans, was in the midst of being turned on by the "smarks". The feud was good and at WM Cena won the belt. Despite the internet fans preferring JBL at the time, Cena winning was definitely the right decision as he's the face of WWE today. Also, JBL's reign was one of the worst drawing power wise, but WWE didn't panic and take it off him too early, and they got rewarded in the process.

HHH, after winning the belt from Orton, continued to feud with Orton until the Rumble. During that time, Batista, who was in Evolution, was getting a HUGE push, and was being built up to feud with HHH. After the Rumble, Batista turned face by powerbombing HHH through a table. Batista and HHH squared off at Wrestlemania, with Batista coming the world champion on Raw. Batista and Cena were the champions at the end of this show, and they would both be the top babyfaces of their respective brands for the next three years.

While the WWE was on a decline business-wise throughout this period and the TV product was subpar for most of it, it did help create their big stars throughout the middle of the 21st century. On the flip-side, the end of it started the decline of women's, tag team, and cruiserweight wrestling in WWE, which is still occurring seven years later.