The General Wrestling Thread

[Warner2BruceTD]

Something to think about, RE: improved WWE TV the last few months, from yesterday's Observer:

David Kreizman, who was hired as the new head writer in late March, gave notice after being in charge of one of the best received PPVs in company history. His final day with the company will be 6/21.

Kreizman was an award winning soap opera writer who won an Emmy for Best Writing in 2007 for his work on “Guiding Light,” where he was head writer from 2004 to 2008 and was nominated for five over Best Emmy Awards for his work on “Guiding Light” and “As the World Turns,” where he was co-head writer from 2009 to 2010.

He was co-head writer for “All My Children” in 2010 and 2011. The job he held before coming to WWE was as a writer for “General Hospital” in 2011-2012.

Kreizman had also won Writers Guild of America awards for Best Writer in 2004 for “Guiding Light” and was nominated three other years, and co-won for 2010 for “As the World Turns.”

The only thing we heard was that the feeling was, he thought the demands for the job were too brutal. That will happen with the nature of writing shows and then having them redone on the fly, as has happened the last few weeks.

He was the head writer at a time when the reaction in recent weeks has been that the product is the strongest it has been in a long time. But there was the overreaction to the bad ratings as they got deeper into the NBA playoffs. And the quality of the shows has improved a lot, not just because of the writing, but because of the Daniel Bryan interaction with The Shield inside the ring. Still, he was the point man for all of the storylines and outside the ring segments, including Bryan’s interaction with Kane and Randy Orton, and using them heavily on every television show.

A lot of the writing is the best it’s been in a long time. The direction is no different, but that’s because they’ve changed so many plans weekly, and rewritten the shows at the last minute the last few weeks. The direction changes are so plentiful that what is advertised on Monday during Raw for Smackdown or Main Event, is more often that not, even though already promoted, changed within the next 12 hours.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Meltzer's report on the Bryan/Triple H confrontation (contains spoilers):

 

A totally unplanned situation took place on Raw on Monday. Daniel Bryan, whose WWE title shot at John Cena in a PPV main event, had been pulled in favor of Mark Henry, but was still on the books for later, was scheduled to get his big needed breakthrough win over Randy Orton, in a match that was at first scheduled for the Payback PPV, but that was when Cena vs. Bryan was to headline Money in the Bank and before the Henry angle was put together.

During the match, a pre-commercial high spot saw Bryan miss a tope and his head crashed into either the barricade or the floor, as his landing seemed to be with his head hitting very close to where they crossed. On television, this was blamed as an injury spot.

But in watching the match over again, he and Orton continued working like nothing was wrong. About 2:00 later, Bryan hit Orton with a missile dropkick. At that point, Bryan laid on his back for a long time. Orton continued to sell. The referee and Bryan were talking. Apparently Bryan was feeling some numbness on the left side of his body. HHH got the word from the ref and ordered Dr. Michael Sampson to ringside to stop the match. Bryan was so into the match that he was going to continue, because that is the mentality he was trained to have. In addition, he saw this as the most important match of his career, where the finish would have him beat one of the company’s top guys, and thus make him a true singles main eventer, and not the comedy top guy champion like he was in late 2011 and early 2012.

What, in hindsight, is really weird is Orton was aware, because he was listening to Bryan and the ref and staying down to give Bryan time to recover. But he still gave him an exploder suplex when he was hurt after Bryan made it clear he wanted to continue the scheduled match. Sampson tried to stop the match, and Bryan was at ringside begging him to let him finish because he’s so mentally tough and determined. Bryan at one point right as Sampson was going to stop it, ran away, into the ring and started brawling. They ended up outside and Orton gave Bryan a back suplex on the barricade, which you would think would be the last thing you would do or someone with numbness and where they were fearing nerve damage. Sampson then stopped the match. Orton broke character, helped Bryan up, and hugged him and helped get him to the back.

At that point, Bryan backstage went to HHH and there was a loud screaming match between the two of them that was not caught by cameras. I’ve read people say that the two guys were using what happened and working a storyline backstage. There’s enough to be suspicious of every aspect. But every person backstage we contacted believed it was real, and there are some very perceptive people who have seen their share of worked shoots and attempts to fool the boys with backstage angles. All said the entire story as was going around was a shoot, and that Bryan and HHH got into a loud argument that nearly came to blows, that nobody had ever seen Bryan act that way.

At the time it was feared the injuries were worse because of how long it took for Bryan to get up, and the fact the left arm was just hanging there as Bryan was still trying to do his match. He was supposed to at one point do a skin the cat spot, but couldn’t (although he was able to pretty much do it on the second try) because he had no power in his left arm. Jerry Lawler noticed the problems immediately and was commenting on them. Under normal circumstances, this would have been cause for concern, but since they booked a very similar scenario with Ziggler the night before, and with HHH on Raw a few weeks earlier, it just came across like an effective idea that they are now beating to death.

As soon as he got to the back, Bryan made a beeline for HHH. He got in his face and was screaming about how in his entire career, he had never not finished a match due to injury and he should be able to decide if he could continue. But what’s weird to me is that if Bryan was hurt but scripted to win, given Orton was back suplexing him on the barricade, why didn’t they have Orton quickly miss an RKO, get put in the no lock, and they would have their finish and it wouldn’t mess up plans?

The WWE web site covered it like it was storyline, saying that HHH and Bryan almost came to blows as Bryan got in his face talking about his injuries he’d worked through and they had never stopped the match, cursing at him and that they should never stop one of his matches if he thinks he’s okay to go. HHH talked about working through a torn quad (in a match where he finished the match and did the finish planned), which it was noted actually made no sense because in trying to say he was tough and did what Bryan wanted to do, he was making Bryan’s point. Bryan brought up that this was supposed to be the most important win of his career and they took it away from him. Several backstage confirmed that they did appear they were going to come to blows, and Orton and Brian James jumped in to separate them. Eventually both calmed down, both apologized to the other, and said there were no hard feelings and it was just emotions. HHH did do a web site interview, acknowledged there was a confrontation, played it down, just said it was two guys passionate about the business, that they made up, but that he had to make the tough call. He said his job is to protect the talent and he will always make the call to protect the talent.

Even after this happened, it was announced on Raw that Bryan would face Dean Ambrose on Smackdown, taped the next day. But it was made clear that was if Bryan was okay. As it turned out, Bryan’s numbness was caused by a stinger, and not nerve damage, and he was okay. He even wrestled the next night at the Smackdown tapings. For whatever reason, on Smackdown, the finish was Bryan winning via count out after hitting Orton with a tope, rather than doing a pin or submission finish. I think at this point the chase of Bryan getting that big win is a story in itself, so I actually think avoiding it for a while is the best, especially since he’s no longer getting the title shot on 7/14, meaning it’s now SummerSlam at the earliest, which would be part of a loaded show if Punk vs. Lesnar is on it as well as the potential of The Shield vs. Undertaker & Kane.

 

[SuperKevin]

God I hate WWE fans

So far today I have witnessed a person seriously try to convince everyone that Chris Benoit and his family was murdered by Kevin Sullivan and a legit serious discussion about how Kane should be the WWE Champ

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

I can forgive the Kevin Sullivan rumors.

But I can not forgive Kane as the champ. May that individual or group of individuals die in a fire.

 

[SuperKevin]

I can forgive the Kevin Sullivan rumors.

But I can not forgive Kane as the champ. May that individual or group of individuals die in a fire.

Their argument is that the WWE needs to reward Kane for his loyalty and give him a WWE title run to cement his legacy as a Hall of Famer

 

[Aso]

Their argument is that the WWE needs to reward Kane for his loyalty and give him a WWE title run to cement his legacy as a Hall of Famer

He should of had the title or at least legitimately competed for the title more often 2001-2003 time period imo.

 

[SuperKevin]

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Something to think about, RE: improved WWE TV the last few months, from yesterday's Observer:

So...R.I.P. to good RAWs in a week or two because the job is too demanding for this really good writer they hired.

Damn.

 

[Aso]

lol at the classic, "good thing they don't give a fuck about your opinion"... Surely they do care about his though

 

[SuperKevin]

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

David Kriezman has agreed to stay on through the fall as WWE head writer.

The Big O is one of the Gut Check guys tonight.

 

[SuperKevin]

I like what I have seen from The Big O. He has that big promotion look to him but what does he bring to TNA that they don't already have with Rob Terry?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I'm getting more information on Big O as we speak. He's at Impact 1000%. The assumption is Gut Check, obviously. Trying to find out the opponent.

 

[SuperKevin]

I'm getting more information on Big O as we speak. He's at Impact 1000%. The assumption is Gut Check, obviously. Trying to find out the opponent.

Yeah he was listed as a Gut Check contestant on the Gut Check website

 

[SuperKevin]

http://tnagutcheck.com/contestants/gut-check-participants/2013-2/february-2013-fayetteville-nc/

 

[EmpireWF]

Who is Big O, where's he from?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I have been told Facade is backstage at Impact. Can not confirm this, may or may not be the other Gut Check competitor.

 

[SuperKevin]

Who is Big O, where's he from?

Zack Ryder's big muscle bound friend from his videos. Wrestles in the northeast indie scene for NYWC, PWS, and those promotions

 

[SuperKevin]

I have been told Facade is backstage at Impact. Can not confirm this, may or may not be the other Gut Check competitor.

Ugh. Not really impressed with Facade. I wonder if he still looks like a smaller version of Christian York. He finished 4th in their online Gut Check Challenge

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Who is Big O, where's he from?

NYWC guy, where Tony Nese, Apollyon, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, and all of those dudes came from. Beefed up roid guy, like, gigantic.