Fast Three Count with @BrenFinney

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The Royal F'N Rumble...

*Warning: This may come across as rantish, nonsensical and not the usual style I post. That's because I'm going on 3 hours sleep, being robbed of 20 quid from a billion dollar company and just going on a bender on twitter with anyone that'll listen!*

Now by the Royal F'N Rumble I don't mean it like EC F'N W but more like Miley F'N Cyrus.
Normally I am upbeat, positive and always try to find the silver lining, but watching this years Rumble has got me, well, wanting to trap my wobbly bits it the kitchen drawer.

There is no pleasing some

To paraphrase the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln,

You can please some of the people some of the time, All of the people some of the time, Some of the people all of the time but you can never please All of the people all of the time.

Right now in within the IWC this is true in regards to the WWE and it's a great shame. 2013 has shaped up to be a truly remarkable year for WWE with the use of new talent, making good use of established names and heading in a new direction. Keeping well within their PG shackles they have proved they can still make for brilliant TV and top flight action.

Prior to 2013's momentum the IWC and the Universe was up in arms, screaming for a new face to take over from Cena. Of course we had the Summer of Punk but Cena was still taking charge in most of that, champion or not. 

Many of us felt disgruntled, feeling like the WWE was ignoring its "key & most important" fan sector. Truth being WWE was just doing what its always done in cycles and thats pull in its new fan base. The future fan base, without which they wouldn't be able to entertain anyone let alone the "key & most important" fan base.

If you're a twitterer there's a very good chance you've seen a tweet or two today professing that the Attitude Era needs to come back and use "real" wrestlers.

Attitude Era Podcast got me thinking.

Over the last couple of episodes from @AEPodcast they have pointed something out that has got me thinking.



Now let's not get it twisted, these guys are genius. The whole format has got such a brilliant hook, niche....gimmick? Kevin, Billy and Adam take a step back to the beginnings of some the WWE's best years and tell the stories of the Attitude Era's PPVs and touch on the RAWs and I'm guessing Smackdowns to come. The trio from England and Ireland (maybe N.I, I'm not too sure? Sorry Kevin) are as funny as the idea of a pet coon, whipping a government mule until he's God damned broken in half!
Each episode is seamless with telling us how each PPV unfolded with a nice pace of comedy and, well, almost a play by play commentary.
I personally would like to ask Attitude Era Podcast if they would ever do a minute for minute full commentary, to say, Wrestlemania XV? I would love it and I hope other AEP supporters would love it too.

Let's talk. SummerSlam

SummerSlam is only bested by Wrestlemania in my opinion both in historic value and importance.
It has been home to many great and memorable moments and is one of the big four monthly shows, never dropped or moved around the calendar and has always held a certain amount of significance even in its early days.

Tonight sees SummerSlam on its 26th birthday, further solidify its status as the "Biggest event of the Summer" with a main event that has got me itching to see. The potential pay offs that could happen are everything a Attitude fan could want, with the McMahons and Triple H playing extras in the John Cena / Daniel Bryan feud over the WWE Championship and Randy Orton lurking in the shadows with his MiTB briefcase in tow, this could really be a landscape changing night.

During the go home episode of RAW John Cena teased a little .... Attitude Adjustment (seriously no pun intended)...of his own and gave Bryan a dry slap in retaliation over being told he wasn't a wrestler. Is this a little heel tease?

I'm dying to see a new side of Cena as much as the next guy, but I don't see it happening in reality. Partially down to the rumour he's taking time off after SummerSlam. It wouldn't make much sense turning just to leave, surely it'll be the anticlimax of the Summer if it did happen. Maybe a heel return but can't see him leaving as one.
Either way tonight could be the start of a new chapter in Cena's lengthy career (It's gone from 10 years strong to 12 years in 6 months apparently)

Mr. COO, Triple H who has a great SummerSlam history is the appointed official so the 1-2-3 is actually in his hand. Hunter has the power to help or screw who he wants here, even it's helping both superstars from getting screwed by McMahon or McMahons.
Triple H may call it straight down the middle to the last second and then screw either guy. Could Trips actually be on side with McMahons all along?
It maybe his role on the PPV could be for after the main event, he may call the Cena vs Bryan match down the middle just to screw the winner and assist Randy Orton to win after he cashes in.

I'm not claiming any of this is true or will happen. Hell I'd love none of this to happen so I can actually be shocked and happy with paying for this event.
The main event is what I'm really hyped for but with Punk and Lesnar about to put on a solid punch up I'm hoping at least two matches tonight will leave me hanging on for RAW tomorrow night.

Let's Talk. The Undertaker vs Cena.

John Cena squaring off against The Undertaker has already happened a few times through the mid 2000s but John Cena vs The Undertaker at Wrestlemania has never happened. 

Will this ever happen? Could this ever happen? 'Taker may not have too many matches left and with the somewhat ambiguous situation involving The Shield, the white hot Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar looking for trouble there could be some other opponents for 'Taker to go for.

Would WWE or its fans benefit from pitting super Cena against The Deadman?
I believe given the right angle it could be oh so more than epic.

Personally I would love to see this match happen and have spent a few commutes to work thinking about how this could go down.

Respect

Hustle, Loyalty and Respect. It's what Cena is all about and it could play a part in this match up. If Cena decided to take the challenge to Undertaker he say it's all about respect and wants to have the honour to try and beat the streak. 

Is WWE real?

As a wrestling fan you have, with out a doubt been told wrestling is fake.
I have been told that wrestling is fake fighting with fake blood, fake stories and I've even had someone tell me the ring is fake.
From here on in let's call these people Sheeple. That is what they are, right? Just a bunch of know it alls who want to ruin your fun. Sheeple for some reason will nonsensically spew their closed minded opinions for as long as you want to defend your own opinion.....They seem to have a lot of spare time and energy for this, so be careful if you want to take them on.

Now when I have some one telling me that I'm a childish fool for liking WWE or pro-wrestling I don't feel the need to justify my self, but I do feel the need to give them a few reasons to think about wrestling a little different. Not wanting to be a salesman, spokes person or ambassador but just giving a couple of facts that may make Sheeple look at it in a new way.

It Doesn't Hurt

First and most prominent argument that people tend to go with is that the "fighting" is staged and choreographed. Yeah sure it is predetermined and spots are planned, even some the moves and throws you see may have very little if any impact. But can you imagine a WWE match where every punch, kick and throw is real? It's called MMA and I, for one, am not a huge fan of watching men completely knock the snot out of each other.
So that means WWE doesn't hurt, right? EGH-UGH! Of course it does, the men and women that entertain us fans on a weekly to nightly basis go through ridiculous amounts of physical abuse. The recent case of Edge having to hang up the boots and retire in such Hollywood story fashion was down to injury. The injury was not like a one off career killing moment but more of a breakdown after years of using his body to entertain us.
Edge is one of many wrestlers who have had to retire due to their bodies being one bad landing away from a drastic life altering injury from taking bump after bump, night after night for a good 300+ days a year plus travel.
OK, OK Sheeple I hear you! How could anyone possibly go night in night out getting beaten up for real all year long? Not even Mikey Whipwreck could really do it. Boxers and UFC fighters could really max out 2-3 big fights a year but our guys must be fake because they get up the next day and do it all again.
It's true our guys are entertainers, working for a entertainment company, but they take some serious damage. The history of pro-wrestling is littered with injury, from the "small" finger breaks, to the Sids of the ring going all jelly legged, to the Brets and Edges having to walk away for good.
Pro-wrestling is predetermined, the matches are called but the action takes its toll in a big way and as cliche as it may seem, the risks are very real.

It's all soap opera with added baby oil

Yes. Baby oil. My only answer to that is there is less now than in the 80's and 90's.
But the soap opera part does have some weight behind it in all fairness and truth. Just like I have already pointed out for the Sheeple, wrestling is pre-planned, predetermined, choreographed, scripted so can it not be soap?
I'm sorry to tell you sXe_Punker20-1's, CenationsGurl16's and WWEfanmaniac's but wrestling you watch is not a documentary. The stories, rivalries and feuds you see are written to make you think it could all be real because of the blurry line they create between fact and fiction, sometimes these lines get ripped to pieces with the likes of the Montreal Screw Job, Austin vs McMahon, Edge-Lita-Matt Hardy love affair all of which make art imitate life and life imitate art.
With todays vomit inducing batch of  "reality" TV like Jersey Shore, Made in Chelsea and tripe like Wife-Swap it has become increasingly harder to seperate what's real and what's not on TV.
So WWE maybe scripted like a soap opera but can be as real as any reality show on TV today, if not more so due to the fact that the people performing these stories can some times have their very real lives played out on screen.

Is It Real?

Even as a life long fan, I don't think I have the vocabulary or law school teachings to give an accurate conclusion for myself let alone the Sheeple of this world due to the often blurry line of reality that wrestling carries. Sure I can agree that a huge part of it is on paper before it hits our screens but such a huge compelling part is still kinda real.

                                      

Well maybe not as much as happy chappy here.

The fact that wrestling does have this blurry line I think leaves it open for us to make up our minds on its authenticity. I will still give Sheeple a gentle reminder of what these performers go through physically and some of what you see on its programming can be as close to life as any reality show out there.

One thing these Sheeple do need to learn is, 

Even if wrestling is fake, it doesn't hurt for anyone to suspend their belief of reality to enjoy what they're watching. Just like most humans do when watching Eastenders, Days of Our Lives, House, Breaking Bad, Bridget Jones' Diary or Die Hard. Every now and again we just like to leave our real world and immerse ourselves in something we enjoy. It's just wrestling has more baby oil.

King Bingus Top 10 .... RAW moments

We all have our favorite wrestling moments. We all have those memories of watching wrestling and thinking that we have just seen something amazing, surprising, special, historic and even sometimes funny. Or it may be that you have been to a live show and caught up in the atmosphere made in the arena and created a bit of an emotional attachment to the show.

I wouldn't blame you, live shows are 1010 times better than they come across on TV. 

Many of these moments for wrestling fans, with good chance, would have been provided by WWE PPV or TV. These moments maybe in form of backstage interviews or brawls, in ring action or promos, or a formation of new a team. WWE's Monday night, flagship, weekly, episodic, longest running, highest tweeted, most viewed show on TV, 3 hour, RAW could also be responsible for your favorite moments in wrestling.

This is a quick look at my personal favorite Raw moments and little bit on why I like them so much.


10.  RAW IS JERICHO - August 9 1999

By this point I had become fully immersed with in WWE and was just so into the whole product. Every week just seemed to deliver more gold than the last and I had been getting hyped by a countdown to the millennium clock on Raw.
I was a complete spoiler free kid watching Raw in a TV lounge of a hotel in Spain with a dozen or so kids all as compelled by wrestling as me. 
When the countdown clock interrupted none other than The Rock we knew what ever was about to happen was gonna be big. Then this guy who I didn't recognize appeared and a couple of the other kids in the lounge piped up by telling us he was a WCW wrestler. It was at that point I knew we was in for a treat and what followed just pumped me up more.
This made it to the top 10 not only because of the debut it self but also what that moment gave us WWE fans.