WON News + Notes - November 13th

[cabbageboy 0]

Personally I think it was a combo of the Edge feud and also the ECW angle that got Cena back over. The whole bit against RVD and to some extent Sabu got Cena over since it showed he could go against serious odds but still come back for a fight.

 

Of course, focusing the angle on "Gee, can Cena overcome the odds at One Night Stand?" was totally the wrong thing to book in my view, but even accidentally it helped Cena in the long run.

[Just John 0]

Vince hates that the wrestling brand is doing better then the SE brand.

 

I never understood why "wrestling genius" Vince McMahon can't get his head around the idea of wrestling fans liking wrestling. I assume he just doesn't realize all the 1998 bandwagon jumpers quit watching by 2002 and there's no hope of capturing that magic again. Attitude worked in 98 because it was different, but trying it now just makes wrestling look pathetic.

[KingPK 0]

Dave says holding off the K-Fed/Cena 'match' till 1/1 is actually great planning as it gives them plenty of time to build up the match on Access Hollywood type shows and then have the ending be an introduction of a surprise celebrity character to build up for a Wrestlemania angle. With K-Fed and Brittney getting divorced (and reports are that he knew about this before he showed up in the WWE) he's going to be huge news for the next couple of months and that should help matters even more. However, 1/1 might be just too far off for him to mean as much as he could.

 

"Huge news" may be a bit of a stretch. It'll probably be more like "Look what Federline is reduced to doing now" and him being the BUTT of late night TV jokes. I mean, I haven't heard much about him and WWE on those entertainment shows since the first thing with Cena. Vince will take any mainstream publicity he can get right now, so I doubt he'll care.

[Dips 0]

Who is this suprise celebrity character Dave is on about for WM though?

[reign 0]

Thanks for posting...Unless K-Fed goes dirty on Spears and starts acting like more of a jackass and really gets the Spears fans in an uproar than holding off until January is a horrible idea because no one will care....

[2GOLD 0]

K-Fed is going to fade fast. Dave is really nuts if he thinks any of the entertainment shows are going to care about a bust rap artist who is giving away concert tickets for free and getting booed at his own CD release party. The only thing he had was that he was the husband of Britney Spears and they loved the car crash the two of them were. Car crash is over and K-Fed is DOA.

 

They need to put it on the fast track and get him out quickly.

[iggymcfly 0]

Is Cena/K-Fed really the main event feud on Raw right now? Wow, this show just gets worse and worse. I'm glad I quit watching.

[2GOLD 0]

Is Cena/K-Fed really the main event feud on Raw right now? Wow, this show just gets worse and worse. I'm glad I quit watching.

 

No, main feud is DX vs Edge/Orton with Cena just kinda doing nothing but talking.

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm assuming Umaga is supposed to be the main challenger on Raw at this point for Cena, but nobody takes him seriously at that kind of level or gives him a chance in hell of winning the belt. Umaga shouldn't be in the title scene right now. He's not remotely over enough to put the title on, and yet they probably want to keep his unbeaten run going.

 

I'd personally keep Umaga undefeated until WM and then do streak vs. streak with UT. And of course UT beats him.

[randomguy 0]

Maybe Smackdown is doing well because it is not "edgy" at all but is actually about wrestling instead of skits recycled from 1998.

 

And it looks like everybody hates Batista. The guy must be a real dick because it seems like only about two guys in the E don't hate his guts.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

They should save Cena Vs. Federline for WM. That way you get the "celebrity feel" from the first WM and Cena can be out of the title picture.

[uhftv 0]

I dont think Vince even watches Smackdown anymore, even though he's supposedly at all the shows. Im just glad he lets the B show have actual wrestling, as when both shows were bad when they first split 4 years ago, it was atrociously bad.

 

I figured if Smackdown was considered a ratings success or at least stayed the same, Vince would either: make Smackdown worse, make Raw worse, or both. The benefit of him not caring about SD much is that he wont mess with it.

 

Raw is doing a good job of sucking, so it'd be interesting if the ratings gap would become huge between the shows, and he'd have to concede that his Russo-like style isnt right for wrestling anymore.

 

The Rey world title push was one of the worst in history next to the Benoit push, and now I find out the original plan was for him to have been buried even worse. No wonder he never said no to all the past horrible booking ideas, look at how worse it coulve been.

 

I pretty much led a Smackdown boycott in '04-'05 when he was pushed as the main guy. I was happy when they moved him down to 'feud with Boogeyman' status. Now it seems they wanted to push him even longer than they did. If his back didnt get messed up I couldnt watch either show. I like him as an announcer but as the top wrestler that just screamed 'B Show' to me.

 

Also, as an announcer he puts over SD as the A show, where Batista does the opposite. Everyone on that roster knows it's the B show, but they know it's better even though theyre ignored. But Batista knows it's getting ignored but actually believes Raw is a better show and wishes he were still there.

I'm sure he'd do GREAT if he was still there. They'd push him just a cut above Eugene as a babyface, cause there's no way they'd let a guy that actually gets majorly loud cheers get pushed as much as Cena does.

 

Hope Lashley does go to ECW. I wouldnt worry about a title push. They just need more talent over there.

 

There was a time many years ago when Federline would be too low a celeb to be associated with wrestling but now theyre at the same level. WCW would shell out for big names as well as nobodies. Just the fact that WWE pays Federline is pretty much desperation level. The only positive is you genuinely want to hate this guy. And they desperately need guys that people boo more than Cena. I wouldnt say a run as a heel would be as bad as the Austin one, because it makes sense to turn someone who's getting loud boos. Austin couldnt help getting cheered so that naturally made a heel run a disaster for him as well as for anyone booked as a babyface against him. Cena does a better job on the mic, since he gets loud screams and cheers and the rest of the crowd doesnt pay attention. His wrestling is what gets him the jeers with his Warrior-like moveset. Outside of Kfed, Nitro and Edge are the only guys that get in there and get more boos than Cena does. Although there were many occasions when everyone in the match is getting booed.

 

And I wouldnt say Edge did a better job in getting Cena over than Jericho, Angle, etc.; I think it's the fact that Edge was lower on the card before the Cena feud, and the others were already maineventers with Cena as the new guy, so the fans naturally took to cheering the other wrestlers.

 

Only Vince would think the divorce news is a positive. Any idiot sees that as the beginning of the end of publicity coverage for Federline. Maybe only half of fans care or remember about the match. Is the buzz all through Thanksgiving and Xmas gonna be "Cena/Kfed I cant wait!" I dont think so. People had more interest in that fake Kane storyline.

 

A month from now. you'll be lucky to get a small blurb about 'this guy is canceling concerts so he's resorting to wrestling to make ends meet.'

[King Cucaracha 0]

Claudio Castagnoli, TJ Wilson and Nattie Neidhart have been offered deals and have either signed or expected to.

 

Fuck!

[Guest Jack Potts]

With the backstage heat Batista has been getting, and fans picking up on his less-than-thrilling ringwork since his return, I think Batista really needs to turn heel.

 

He could still keep his GQ suits (which helped get him over with the smarks), but ratchet up his cockiness. He could even keep his "Machine Gun Kelly" routine during his entrance, but skip the part where he roams the stage to preen for the fans, and turn the pyro red.

 

I think Batista would work better as a heel, anyway. He's got the aura of a cultured villain who learned the art of Machiavellan manipulation from HHH himself.

 

 

 

By the way, thanks again for transcribing the WON newsletter!

[SamoaRowe 0]

Look, anyone who thinks that Cena is still getting heavily booed clearly hasn't watched a single Raw in the past five months. Since the summer, Cena has consistently been cheered for by the majority of fans. It gets to being stupid when I still read "Cena is hated, doesn't draw, etc" when every episode of Raw is packed with fans wearing Cena merchandise, holding pro-Cena signs, cheering for his every move, and then there might be a handful of guys booing him.

 

In addition, what the hell is so bad about Cena's ring work these days either? I don't think he's had a single bad ppv match all year, and most of them have been tremendous. His television matches have all been fine also. Times have changed people, Cena has become the man in the WWE, whether you want to admit it or not.

[Jericholic82 0]

Look, anyone who thinks that Cena is still getting heavily booed clearly hasn't watched a single Raw in the past five months. Since the summer, Cena has consistently been cheered for by the majority of fans. It gets to being stupid when I still read "Cena is hated, doesn't draw, etc" when every episode of Raw is packed with fans wearing Cena merchandise, holding pro-Cena signs, cheering for his every move, and then there might be a handful of guys booing him.

 

In addition, what the hell is so bad about Cena's ring work these days either? I don't think he's had a single bad ppv match all year, and most of them have been tremendous. His television matches have all been fine also. Times have changed people, Cena has become the man in the WWE, whether you want to admit it or not.

thanks for taking a stand, i must agree with you. Cena has apprantly gotten past the hatred pat, and while older smarks like to boo him, he has the majority of crowd support and is the most over character/wrestler on any of the shows.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

You are correct. The 50/50 crowds for Cena have probably turned to more like 90/10, with the majority cheering him.

 

I think the main problem people have with Cena's ringwork is that he works a fairly robotic WWE "main event style"...but basically he does the same kind of stuff as Austin, Rock, Triple H, Booker T, etc. If you don't like Cena's ringwork, you probably don't like most WWE matches anyway.

[Black Lushus 0]

eh, it still depends on where he wrestles...I'm curious to hear how Philly fans treat him come Survivor Series.

[RepoMan 0]

I think the crowd was about 50-50 during the last Raw in Philly in July.

 

I think turning Cena hell and managed by K-Fed would be great, but there's no way Cena is going to turn heel until a few months after the Marine hits DVD. They're going to need strong sales to turn a profit on that project.

[Slickster 0]

The only positive from Federline's divorce would be that since he's more in need of $$ he'd be willing to work more for less. A heel manager, perhaps?

[Ravenbomb 0]

Claudio Castagnoli, TJ Wilson and Nattie Neidhart have been offered deals and have either signed or expected to.

 

Fuck!

 

Pfft. Castagnoli's awesome

[EricMM 0]

Won't he be just as gimped as Punk in a WWE ring, though?

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

I'm pretty sure he means "fuck, now I won't be able to see him being awesome on the indies, because he'll be busy being reprogrammed by the WWE."

[Hawk 34 0]

Won't he be just as gimped as Punk in a WWE ring, though?

 

Hardly. Claudio isn't the worker that Punk was known for being and Claudio is more known for his charisma, character and wacky tag team combos with Hero. Claudio wouldn't be diluted as much as Punk has and even Punk hasn't been rescricted much either if you look at his OVW stuff where he got 10-12 minutes on average. It's basically a 30 minute ROH Punk match condensed into a tighter and somewhat more crisp pace.

[Guest Wisdom]

Mysterio is having knee surgery on 11/8 and could be out till May at the earliest. He's been working for a year on a torn ACL and torn patella tendon in his left knee. The orginial idea was for him to work throught to Wrestlemania, but then the decision was made right after the Royal Rumble to nix the planned Orton vs Angle title match where Randy would win the title and go instead with the three way with Rey winning the belt. He was then only going to hold the belt for a very short time (which they didn't tell him about) and drop it to JBL. However as JBL's back was much worse than first thought he ended up holding it much longer than planned.

 

How is that even possible?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Victoria has been working with a torn ACL for three years.

[Hawk 34 0]

Austin Aries has the same injury+shoulder injury. Shawn had a similar injury that worked with for awhile.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

I'd expect Cena to get like an 80/20 negative reaction at Survivor Series, personally. Philly, whose WWE crowds are awful, BTW, and will go apeshit for DX, still has enough mutants that hate him.

[The Niggardly King 0]

I think the main problem people have with Cena's ringwork is that he works a fairly robotic WWE "main event style"...but basically he does the same kind of stuff as Austin, Rock, Triple H, Booker T, etc. If you don't like Cena's ringwork, you probably don't like most WWE matches anyway.

 

Cena's a good wrestler, but is being booked as the typical WWE main event face. That means he has to control most of the match with his offense, which blows. Cena really needs to be getting his ass kicked throughout most of a match... selling an assbeating is the best thing he can do.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

"Cena's a good wrestler"

 

Stop. He handles crowd heat well, and maybe you mean "performer", but that statement is absurd. The announcers who blow Cena on a weekly basis have even said so.

 

"That means he has to control most of the match with his offense"

 

What offense?

 

"Cena really needs to be getting his ass kicked throughout most of a match."

 

That IS how Cena is booked. And why, in addition to his corny, outdated jokes, why the marks hate him. Because of his predictable match-ending comebacks.