Hello, and welcome to the return of my (sometimes) weekly column to where I get to step upon my soapbox and rundown some of my personal thoughts about WWE and the goings on within. This column has been on hiatus, and it was merely due to lack of inspiration. The product has been down and so have my thoughts on WWE, however, a lot has happened in the last week that regenerated a spark so let’s hop on that soapbox!
1. The NXT/WWE Name Generator
If you follow me on Twitter (@LuchaNerd) then you have probably read some of my rant on this topic already. When Prince Devitt’s name was changed to “Finn Balor”, it happened again. Another internet darling wrestler had to change their name for the WWE and the internet wrestling community exploded with complaints. What does it matter? That is my question to everyone who complains about this. Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Dean Ambrose, Sami Zayn, Samuray Del Sol, and Seth Rollins have all fallen victim to the WWE Name Generator and what do all of those men have in common? Their names don’t matter anymore! When Daniel Bryan debuted under his WWE-rific name the internet blew up clamoring for “The American Dragon Bryan Danielson” to never change. When El Generico was signed by the WWE and removed his mask upon NXT debut thus changing his name to “Sami Zayn” we saw uproar of “WWE ruins everything good.”
And trust me; I get what the people who are making these complaints are feeling. You developed a personal attachment following this wrestler’s career through the Indies or Japan and you want the wink and nod to you for the dedication you have to these men as fans. I totally get it. In high school I was the guy who listened to indie music and when my favorite bands made their way to MTV and I saw fellow students wearing shirts of these bands just months after I tried to get them to listen to those bands in the first place, I was beyond frustrated. It was like the mainstream media took my little thing that I loved and turned it into this monstrosity. I would go to these bands concerts under their new big label budgets and watch these artists hardly give two craps about the performance anymore. MTV, big music labels, hypocrite classmates, they all ruined the thing I dedicated hours of reading magazines and surfing the web and flipping through CD’s in my favorite record store. But! I digress. This is not what is happening to you guys. The major difference here is just that….It’s just a name! Once that wrestler gets his chance to show off their incredible in-ring skills and overcome any sort of name change, we will all remember to refer to him as “Finn Balor”. Daniel Bryan did it! I don’t hear guys on wrestling podcasts mistakenly calling him “Bryan Danielson” anymore. He has built a reputation and credibility on the “Daniel Bryan” name. Just the same as Cesaro and Zayn and Rollins and Ambrose. None of those men have failed, and especially haven’t suffered at all due to their name changing.
Besides, let’s break down Devitt as an example. “Fergal Devitt” is a terrible name for a wrestler. There is nothing that sounds tough about the name “Fergal”. And the name “Prince Devitt” never made any sense for the guy his entire career except for the fact that it was easier to pronounce for the Japanese than “Fergal”. So, “Fergal Devitt” sounds goofy. “Prince Devitt” doesn’t make any sense. That leaves us with the option of making his name mononymous and go with “Devitt”, but quite frankly I am sick of these one word names. And personally, I think “Finn Balor” sounds like a B.A. name.
Can’t we all rejoice in the fact that we get to watch KENTA, Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Tyler Black, Samuray Del Sol, Claudio Castagnoli, and El Generico wrestle on a weekly basis? I mean, c’mon! Would you rather go back to the 2006 – 2009 era when all we had were the WWE developmental talents with their crew cuts, tribal tattoos, and were all a muscular 6’3” 250 pounds? Be thankful for the influx of talent we have seen in the last few years!
2. Triple H Buries Talent
One day, on my personal Facebook page I joined a bunch of wrestling discussion Facebook groups; because I was bored with my daily feed from the people I actually have met in real life. It quickly reminded me why I stopped posting on wrestling message boards. If I see one more Triple H Meme of him holding a shovel making some joke about a new independent wrestler the WWE just signed, I am going to punch a hole through my computer monitor, and then I wouldn’t be able to write for Voices of Wrestling anymore. And no one would want that, would they?
Triple H hasn’t “buried” anyone. Which of these independent talents hasn’t had a flourishing career? And don’t give me Daniel Bryan. Sure the guy had some setbacks here and there, but none of those were the fault of Triple H, and despite those “setbacks” Bryan has been on WWE TV every week he’s been healthy since Summerslam 2010. On top of that, since Summerslam 2013 Daniel Bryan has been a main focal point of main event storylines.
I’ll even go a step further, go against the grain, and say I don’t “blame” Triple H for burying any talent in his career. Even during his 2002 – 2005 World Title/Evolution era. Who did he bury? Scott Steiner? Goldberg? C’mon! Steiner sucked and was never going to be a main event talent in WWE and Goldberg was exposed for being a one trick pony. When Goldberg came to the WWE and was asked to wrestle 20 minute main event matches and he couldn’t pull it off, that wasn’t Triple H’s fault.
3. Let’s Elevate the Intercontinental Championship Some More
If you read my most recent review of Smackdown then you knew this topic was coming. The WWE has made some small baby steps towards elevating the Intercontinental title. It is nowhere near where it should be (i.e. the late 1980’s or NJPW IC title status), but the fact that The Miz and Ziggler had a two month long program that highlighted the IC title was something refreshing and we haven’t seen in quite some time. It appears that Ziggler and Cesaro could be entering into a program together. My idea is make the Intercontinental Championship the key title that is highlighted on Smackdown. Give whomever the IC champ is the same treatment on Smackdown that the WWE champion has on Raw. Have them open the show with a promo. Give them key backstage segments. Have those in the main event of every episode of Smackdown whether it is in a tag team match, an IC title defense, a non-title match, whatever it may be.
4. Who Will Defeat The Beast Brock Lesnar?
The inevitable defeat of Brock Lesnar has been something I have bounced around on. Originally I was on the bandwagon of Roman Reigns winning the title in the main event of WrestleMania against Brock Lesnar (who would be on a 13 match win streak had he defended the WWE title at every PPV leading up to WrestleMania). With Reigns injury keeping him out potentially passed the Royal Rumble, and Reigns lack of necessary improvement in the ring and the mic, I transferred my pick to Daniel Bryan. Bryan defeating Brock at WrestleMania after winning the Royal Rumble match would be resurgence in Bryan’s career and a throwback to the same style of feud Bryan had against Takeshi Morishima in Ring of Honor.
My third option/pick is Cesaro. The dude was way over with the fans post-WrestleMania XXX even though he was entering into a new heel run with Paul Heyman as his advocate.
Here’s my idea. Have Cesaro win the Intercontinental Championship from Ziggler. Pit Cesaro and United States Champion, Sheamus, in a Best of 7 Match Series to unify the US and IC titles together. Give Cesaro the victory and have him hold the Undisputed Mid-Card Championship (Obviously, WWE wouldn’t call it that, just stick with “Intercontinental Champion”) all the way through the TLC PPV where he could put over an up and comer (Possibly a heel Hideo Itami or Finn Balor?) and then Cesaro enter into his campaign as a babyface garnering sympathy from losing his beloved IC title and put him in the Royal Rumble. Give him back the Giant Swing and put together a feud against Paul Heyman since Heyman ditched Cesaro for Lesnar anyways. Cesaro takes on Lesnar at WrestleMania, Cesaro defeats Lesnar and a new star is born and we get a match that is sure to fire up **** (and maybe even be the final nail in Brock Lesnar’s Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame Plaque). Bada-bing. Bada-Boom. Book it.
5. Hell in a Cell PPV Matches
Little known fact about yours truly, my favorite WWE match stipulation is the Hell in a Cell match. The “Best of Hell in a Cell Match” DVD is one of my favorite that I own. These matches were blood – hate fueled – feuds. Two men who have battled in every type of match possible trying to determine who is the better wrestler only to lock themselves into a demonic structure such as the Hell in a Cell to determine once and for all who reigns supreme!
Since then…. the WWE has created a PPV based on this match stipulation and ever since we have not received a single intriguing feud leading into the PPV named after the match designed to be a blow off to major feuds.
However! The WWE might have the best PG-era Hell in a Cell match on their hands. Is anyone NOT excited about the possibility of seeing Rollins and Ambrose duke it out inside the cell?!
I can’t wait! If Brock Lesnar isn’t going to defend his title at this next PPV, I say you give Ambrose and Rollins a shot at closing out the PPV. Guaranteed to be worth the fan’s money that night.
There are rumors swirling around the internet that the WWE is toying with the idea of having the Bella vs. Bella feud end up inside the Cell. This feud is a hate filled feud and I’m not necessarily against the idea of having a Diva’s match inside of a Cell. I just don’t think these are the two Divas for the job. And if they do follow through with said match and it starts off with a collar and elbow tie up then I officially lose faith in Fit Finlay, or whoever is the agent for the WWE Divas matches. Give the Divas division “book”, so to speak, to Sara Del Ray. She deserves all credit for the great in-ring Divas matches we see in NXT.
That’s all for this week! I am stepping off the soapbox! Thanks for reading, and I would LOVE to hear your thoughts, you can comment below or tweet me @LuchaNerd! Whether you agree or disagree with my opinions it doesn’t matter! That’s the point of this hobby we all love. We can like what we like and hate what we hate, but we all have one thing in common. We love professional wrestling.
