Apologies for the lack of article last week. I’ve been finishing up with school and seeing family and having a lot on my plate and…
Okay. That’s not true. Wrestlemania weekend was a pro wrestling extravaganza. It wasn’t just about Mania but X-Travaganza by TNA, ROH’s Supercard of Honor VII, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Raw afterwards, Impact afterwards – that’s a lot of wrestling! I was just completely burned out on a sport I love.
It feels like writers for the top companies are pretty confused as well. WWE has decided to turn The Ryback into a heel against John Cena to avoid what seemed to be the predictable program in Cena vs. Mark Henry. The Ryback has already gone from an unstoppable monster fearing nothing into a man willing to walk away from WWE Champion Cena. Sean covered this well in his article. The rest of the product seems to be in a lull, but at least they know the Shield is the only interesting thing they have going.
Impact Wrestling is all about Aces and Eights. There’s fear around the Internet that the plan is to run Hulk Hogan vs. Bully Ray for Slammiversary in hopes that the attention of Hogan in the main event and potentially winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship could boost ratings, that have recently dropped under 1.0 in the Nielson. Despite this embarrassment predicament (which isn’t guaranteed and I’ll talk about it next week), the rest of the product has been strong. The X-Division is being rebuilt and the returns of Petey Williams and upcoming return of Chris Sabin should be just what the division needs. Sabin is a great return because he’s just at that age where he can eventually move out of the X Division and onto bigger and better things. Shelley was the mic man in the Motor City Machine Guns, but Sabin knows how to get the audience into his matches. It’ll be interesting to see where TNA goes with Matt Morgan’s character.
Over at ROH, Kevin Steen dropped the ROH Heavyweight Championship to Jay Briscoe and found himself on the outside with SCUM, as Steve Corino booted him in favour of veteran Matt Hardy. Steen hasn’t been seen since. The Briscoes departure from the ROH Tag ranks has been a blessing with Jay charismatic enough to carry the crowd and Mark a good choice for the midcard. I just wish they realized that a heel manager making a girl take her clothes off is a terrible way to get booed. Misogyny, sadly, is not something wrestling audiences boo. The goal seems to be Matt Hardy becoming the main heel in the company, which is a great move. It can get hard to get ROH fans to boo someone, but nobody likes Matt Hardy. Perfect choice.
Things have been slow but things are happening. It’s like the first two episodes in this season of the Game of Thrones. There’s a lot of exposition. The action should be happening… any time now. Enjoy the hangover.
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