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For the fifth match in my best of seven series, pitting the biggest stars of the 80′s PG era against their current PG era counterparts, we come to a collision between kings.  “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs “The Game”  Triple-H.

     Now you may be wondering why I paired these two up, aside from the similar ring monikers that they both have used.  “Macho King” for Savage, and of course Hunter likes to refer to himself as “The King of Kings” on occasion.  But when looking closely at the characters themselves, and the kind of impact they have each had on their respective era’s, the comparison starts to make more sense.  But who would win out in a battle of the kings?

Randy Savage.     Savage entered the WWF  in 1985 with a lot of hype and potential.  So much so, that every manager (remember those? ) at the time was trying to convince him that they were the best man to guide his career.  Of course Savage declined, and introduced us to Miss Elizabeth.  His new manager, and love interest.  During his run in the WWF, Savage had many memorable feuds against some of the biggest names in wrestling, such as Jake Roberts,  Ricky Steamboat, Ted DiBiase,  The Ultimate Warrior, Ric Flair, and of course Hulk Hogan.  His match against Steamboat at Wrestlemania 3, is still considered by many, to be one of the best matches ever in North America.  The Macho Man is a two time WWF World Champion.  His first reign lasted 371 days, becoming the sixth longest in WWF/WWE  history, and no Champion after that would hold a Title for more than a year, until John Cena, 19 years later.  Savage would play both the Heel and Face during his time in the WWF, but no matter which hat (or crown) that he wore, he was still one of the most popular men ever to compete for the company.  Savage left a legacy that would be hard for almost any wrestler to try and duplicate today.

Triple-H.     He is the man of many monikers.  The Game, The Cerebral Assassin, The King Of Kings.  But no matter what he calls himself, the fact of the matter is, he has been one of the top men in the WWE for the better part of the last decade, winning his first of many World Championships in 1999.  He is also responsibe for two of the most successful, and entertaining factions to ever compete in the WWE.  the first being D.X. and of course, Evolution.    Like Randy Savage,  Triple-H has faced many of the biggest stars in the WWE.  Some of which include, The Rock, Mick Foley, The Undertaker, John Cena, Chris Jericho, Batista, and Randy Orton to name a few.  And also like Savage, The Game has been both a fan favourite and Heel on many occasions, but no matter which, he has always been one of the most popular men in the ring.  As most know, he is also married to Stephanie McMahon, and has quite a bit of influence behind the scenes in the WWE as well.  Some argue that this is the only reason that he has won so many Championships (13 World Titles and counting)  But despite politics, nobody can argue that Hunter has carved out a legacy for himself that will always be remembered. 

     So who wins this battle of the two kings?   I guess they don’t call him the “King Of Kings” for nothing.  In this head to head competition, I would have to give the victory, to The Game.

Winner……Triple-H.

By Bruce Shearon.

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John Cena.

     The mere mentioning of his name is going to cause a reaction. And that reaction is always a mixed one.  In arena’s around the World there are almost always as many boo’s as there are cheers.  So why don’t the powers that be, finally let Cena go all the way and turn Heel? 

Cena the good guy. 

Early in his WWE career, Cena used the rapper gimmick.  He was being used as a Heel at the time,  but that quickly faded away, as his freestyle raps to cut up his opponents were a big hit.    This was about the only time I can think of, when John was totally over with the crowd.  Then in 2005 he won his first World Championship from JBL at Wrestlemania 21.  It is about this time that the fans first started to turn on him.  Over time, Cena’s character morphed into a bit of a military style patriot, and eventually to what we see today.  Yet he just can’t shake that mixed crowd reaction.  The announcers say that he is a “controversial” Champion, but clearly there is nothing controversial about him.  Cena has a squeaky clean image, that attracts lots of young viewers, and sells tons of merchandise.  He also does charity work, and is one of, if not THE most requested star for the Make A Wish Foundation.  And it is for these reasons that he has not made the turn that so many people are hoping for.  Why would WWE risk losing all those potential dollars, just to please the half of the fans that don’t seem to like him.  Many have stated that just about every star in the business has done turns as both a Heel and a Face.  But even Hulk Hogan waited until much later in his career, and that was over in WCW. 

Cena the Heel.

     So what exactly would happen if he actually was allowed to become a bad guy?  It would be very easy for Cena to turn on the crowd and get the people that once cheered him, to boo him out of the building.  And with his skills on the Mic, he could quickly become a very charismatic Heel.  But you have to ask yourself this question.  What would be the benefit?  When Hogan did his famous turn, his career as “The Hulkster” was already tired and boring, and it had been for years.  Hulk needed to reinvent himself, thus making himself relevant and marketable again.  I think its safe to say that the NWO led by “Hollywood Hogan” was a huge success.  But what about John Cena?  Should he turn Heel, how would that help him at this stage in his career?  And more importantly, how would it make more money for WWE?  I think the answer to those two questions is,  it won’t! 

Conclusion.

     It is just my opinion, but I really don’t see the point in Cena being anything other than what he is right now.  The main problem that I seem to hear, revolves around booking.  Cena being used again and again as “Super Cena” the hero that defies the odds and wins again and again.  What would be helpful, would be for him to not be Champion for a while, and perhaps have a feud with somebody that can help elevate his status.  Bret Hart did this for Steve Austin, turning an anti hero, into the biggest star in the company (next to The Rock)  It would also be good to see Cena lose a match, cleanly, to a villian.  But again, these are just thoughts and opinions.  But for now, I don’t see anything changing in the way that Cena is being used any time soon, so love him or hate him, he is here for a long time, just the way he is.

By Bruce Shearon

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Taking a cue from a series of articles I saw over on The Bleacher Report, a site that re-posts my own blog entries, I decided to do my own variation of something they call creature vs creature.  What they seem to be doing, is having different contributors do a blog as to why they feel that the tag team they have chosen is the best of all time.  That got me inspired.  So for the next week, I am going to do a series of posts comparing some of the top stars of the then, WWF, back in the PG era of the 80s, to their current counterparts.  For my first match, we have Roddy Piper vs Drew McIntyre.

Rowdy Roddy Piper.    At the time was one of the biggest names in all the WWF.  Second only to Hulk Hogan himself.  Most likely because of his feud with Hogan, and for being in the main event against The Hulkster at the first Wrestlemania.  Well, I’m sure Piper would have been famous regardless, as he was one of the best people on the mic that you will ever hear, and had a knack for getting the crowd to hate him.  Piper was not much of a technical wrestler, in fact he was pretty much a brawler who’s main weapon was a sleeper hold.  And despite being as big as he was, he never did win the World Championship.  But then again, this was the Hogan era, so nobody but him wore that belt for quite a while.

Drew McIntyre.   Here we have the new “Scot” on the block.  It is way too early in McIntyre’s career to know just how far this guy will go, so we can only base this on what we have seen thus far.  And thus far, despite being billed as “The Chosen One”  and being groomed as a future World Champion, he is no match for Mr Piper.  His matches have been dull, and his interviews inspire one to grab the remote as fast as possible to change the chanel.   Now, of course Drew may one day win that World Championship, and have one up on Piper, but from what I can see, he will never fill his boots.  McIntrye has the looks, and even a better finisher with his “Future Shock” DDT, but this head to head is a no contest.

Winner….Rowdy Roddy Piper!

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The Hogan and Eric Bischoff era is here.    It was with a lot of fanfare that these two men arrived in TNA, with promises of taking the company all the way to the top.  They wanted to move  Impact to Monday nights and challenge RAW.  They did, and they failed.  They also made a lot of other moves that didn’t please the fans, such as bringing in their running buddies.  Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Sean Morely, and the Nasty Boys.  These men  took up space that was better suited for younger, up and coming talent.  Another thing that seemed to happen was the X-Division, the Womens Division, and even the Tag Team Division, seemed to be put on the back burner.

         There were of course a couple of other minor changes.  Getting rid of the 6 sided ring, in favour of a traditional 4 sided one.  This initially got a negative reaction, but that faded fast.  And of course there is the ramp that goes all the way up to the ring.  That disappeared for the Hardcore Justice Pay Per View, and was still missing during the “Whole F’n’ Show” on Thursday.  We can only hope that those in charge decide to be rid of it for good, as it gives the high flyers much more room to do their thing.

     And that brings us to what is going on in TNA right now.  It seems that somebody in the head office is actually starting to listen to the fans, or at the very least has a better grasp on what we want to see.  Lately we have seen the tag team action heat up, with the best of 5 series between the Motor City Machine Guns, and Beer Money Inc.  Hopefully they can keep that momentum going and start building the sort of division that used to  boast some of the best tag teams around. 

     The Ev2.0 angle looks like it will continue into a feud between that group and Ric Flairs, Fortune.  Not a bad Idea at all considering the popularity of the former ECW wrestlers.

     The removal of the dead weight, i.e. Hall, Waltman, etc…. and the focus being put back on the people that can deliver, such as Jay Lethal, Mr Anderson, Jeff Hardy and A.J. Styles.

    The return of Abys, as “The Monster”  Face it, not one person liked this guy as the ultimate Hulkamaniac.

    But what else can TNA do to continue this forward momentum?   For starters, they need to get the X-Division back in action like they did with the tag team.  Get that Title off of Doug Williams, and put it on somebody that can excite the crowd.  They learned this lesson with Rob Terry, the former “Global Champion”  Now they need to do it with Williams.

     They also need to go on a hiring blitz, and re-boot the Knockouts Division as well.   Getting Awesome Kong back would be a good start, but overall they are very thin in the talent department.  Adding 6 more Knockouts would certainly shake things up.  Either familiar faces such as Micky James, if they could get her, or Maria Kanellis, or even some women from the indies.  Either way, they need to inject some new blood into the mix.

     For now though, I am happy to see that TNA is actually starting to improve.  Slowly but surely they are getting their swagger back, and its a good thing for all us fans.  We can only hope that this trend continues.

By Bruce Shearon

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What do the following wrestlers have in common?  Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, The Undertaker, Kevin Nash, Sting, and Mick Foley.   If you guessed that they are all legends in their own right, you would be correct.  If you also guessed that all of them are past their prime, that would also be true.  But should they retire?

     This is one of those things in wrestling that is never easy to answer.  In the case of Hulk Hogan, he really has no business competing in the ring, and with his recent back surgery its not very likely he will ever try to do it again.  But it wasn’t too long ago that he was giving it a shot.  Which brings us to Ric Flair.  Flair actually did retire, but when he needed the money, and WWE had nothing left for him, he jumped ship to TNA and is now back in the ring occasionally.  Right now he is still feuding with Jay Lethal.  Sting recently made his return on Impact, and I’m sure we will see him back in action before long, especially since he seems to have joined forces with Kevin Nash.   Both Sting and Nash can still wrestle, as can Flair, but none of them are half as good as they used to be.  That is also the case with Mick Foley, who has also returned to TNA.  He seems to know his limitations, and only does a match now and again, but they are painfully slow.   The only one of the group that I have listed above that seems to still be able to compete at the main event level is The Undertaker.  But as we have seen, he needs more and more time off to let his body recover, and soon will have to make that decision that no wrestler ever seems ready to.

     So when should a wrestler retire?  Each case is different, and as we have heard from countless men who have left, only to come back again and again, the pull of the ring, the roar of the crowd, and the spotlight are hard to resist.  Others have managed to do it though.  The Rock left the business, as did Stone Cold Steve Austin, with both taking on careers in acting.  Of course these two cases are rare when compared to the number of wrestlers who just don’t know when to walk away.  To me, I would say that a wrestler should hang up the boots when he is no longer able to entertain the crowd.  Watching Ric Flair in his matches with Jay Lethal proves this point.  Lethal is almost moving in slow motion to allow Flair to keep up.  Now don’t get me wrong, Flair is still an icon, and leading the new group that he has formed is the perfect role for him, and he can be as entertaining as anybody in that role.  He just shouldn’t wrestle any more.  The same can be said for Foley and Kevin Nash.  Both of these men can be useful, but not in the ring, where younger talent has to carry the entire match for them.  I just hope that The Undertaker takes the route of The Rock and Austin, and bows out gracefully, rather than going on and on, and becoming a shell of his former self.

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Like many TNA fans, I have watched The Monster Abyss, go through many changes.  From the Mute, but deadly monster that had James Mitchell do the talking, and use him as a weapon of mass destruction.  To the victim of Mitchell’s repeated attempts to destroy his own creation.  Then on to the Psycho ward reject, that finally talked, but was a little bit screwy.  Next up was the patient of Dr Stevie, and his strange therapy sessions which saw The Monster try to break his addiction to weapons.  And of course who could forget the inevitable pairing up with his idol, the man he fashioned himself after, Mick Foley.  All the while, Abyss became less, and less fearsome.  In fact, he was stating to resemble Eugine, more than The Monster that had struck fear into the hearts of TNA Wrestlers.

     But then along came Hulk Hogan.  The Hulkster saw that Abyss had become a quivering shell of his former self, and he was going to fix it.  Unfortunately though, he made things worse.  In true Hulk Hogan fashion, the decision was made to give Abyss his Hall Of Fame ring for inspiration, and convince him to do his very best, to……..act like Hulk Hogan.  Yes, now we have a Monster who is trimmed in yellow and red, comes to the ring to a hideous mix of his music and Hogans, and “Hulks Up” during his matches.  Oh, and lets not forget the famous finger point.  I know I am not alone in thinking this, but enough is enough.  This just makes the poor guy look stupid.  Hogan was the only one that could pull these things off,  and the fans eventually got bored of him doing it years ago. 

     So what can be done to fix this?  This part is really quite simple.  Abyss just needs to drop the “Worlds Biggest Hulkamaniac” routine, and go back to what he does best.  Be a Monster.  Personally I would love to see James Mitchell back in the picture, because in my opinion, that was when Abyss was at his best.  Perhaps they can give the job to Raven, since they don’t seem to be using him as a Wrestler at the moment.  I have always thought that he would be a great manager, as he is a natural on the Mic.  Starting a new “Flock” with Abyss as his main man would be quite interesting.  But regardless of how it is done, the fact remains that Abyss needs to stop emulating Hulk Hogan in the ring, and act more like Jason Voorhees.

     Here are a couple links to similar stories on the subject

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/391426-dear-tna-the-gimmick-known-as-abyssamania-has-to-end

http://www.camelclutchblog.com/abyss-a-mania/

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Randy Orton, also known as “The Viper”

     A couple of months ago I wrote about how I thought that Orton’s sudden increase in popularity would do to him what it has done to many former bad guys gone good, and that would be to rob him of his edge.  Or as I put it, rob the viper of his teeth. 

     Now here we are, and thus far Randy is as bad as he has ever been (minus some kicks to the head)  and the crowds still love him.  But watching him recently has made me realize that no matter how popular he is right now, he may never reach that plateau of superstar, reached by such greats as Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, or Hulk Hogan.  Those three men had a certain charisma that was bigger than life, and had the crowds hanging on their every word.  Arena’s would explode with just the first few chords of their entrance music.  These were the men that the company was built around during their time.  Even the merchandise selling machine that is John Cena gets a mixed reaction no matter where he goes, and he is the companies golden boy.

     So what is this missing ingredient that can propel Mr Orton to that mythical ‘next level’  Unfortunately for Randy, it is the one thing that he has never been very good at.  He just can’t help being boring.  More specifically he has very little skills on the Mic.  Listening to a Randy Orton interview is the equivalent to putting your radio on a station that is nothing but static for 5 minutes.  It is just so much white noise.  On his best day he can only manage to be no more than dull.  And secondly is his in ring work.  For a guy who looks to be in fantastic shape, he is very slow and methodical, and seems to need constant breaks, which for The Viper, means headlock after headlock.

     So, can Randy Orton ever break this curse of being dull, and join the ranks of the elite?  Perhaps he can.  Maybe the right opponent would bring out something new.  Maybe he can explore other ways of drawing the crowd into his warped mind (those voices in his head)  I certainly did enjoy him more when he looked like he was having a mental breakdown now and again.  But I guess only time will tell on this one.

By Bruce Shearon

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Sunday March 21′st is the date for TNA’s Destination-X, pay per view.  It has been said that since Hogan and Bischoff have been running things, that a lot of people have been getting the short end of the stick, and that the X-Division isn’t being used to its full potential.  Well now is the time to show off what they’ve got.  Looking over the card we have 3 matches featuring X-Division wrestlers.  First up is a ladder match with Amazing Red, Kazzarian, Brian Kendrick, and Daniels.  This could easily be the best match of the night with these guys in the mix.  Then we have an ultimate-X  tag match between the Motor City Machine Guns, and Generation Me.  Again, another potential show stealer.  Unfortunately though, the last of the X-Division matches is my least favourite.  Doug Williams takes on Shannon Moore.  Why Moore was given a Title shot this fast is beyond me, but I don’t see him winning this one.  Hopefully this match is early, so we can forget about it fast.  Of course the Tag Titles are on the line.  And I  predict that Beer Money will finally get the gold again.  This will also allow Hernandez and Morgan to finally have that feud that we have all seen brewing.  Moving along, we have the Knockouts Title match between Tara and Daffney.  It seems that Tara can never hold on to that belt for very long, so we might just see an upset.  But I doubt it.  Now we come to the Global Championship.  I posted earlier about not really knowing where TNA stands with this Title, but putting it on the card is a step in the right direction towards defining it. Now if Brutus Magnus beats his former partner, Rob Terry, then we will have a Champion who can at least wrestle.  Now rounding out the rest of the card, we have some lousy match with Kevin Nash and Eric Young, facing Scott Hall, and Syxx Pac.  I seriously hope  “The Band” doesn’t win. I’m already tired of their antics.  One match I AM looking forward to, is Mr Anderson and Kurt Angle.  They have done a nice job of building this one up, and both of these guys can go.  This might turn out better than the main event.  Actually, unless something amazing happens, I don’t see Abyss and his magical ring, pulling off a good match with A.J. Styles.  That one may be the main event, but It’s far from the best match on the card.  In all though, this one shapes up rather well.  I for one am looking forward to it.

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It has been only a week, but the image of Sting, beating down Rob Van Dam with a baseball bat is still fresh in my memory.  But then again, so is the last time “The Icon” tried to become a bad guy.  It wasn’t all that long ago that Sting was a member of the Main Event Mafia.  But we all knew that he just didn’t fit in.  Nobody was buying it, and eventually, when it was obvious that the idea wasn’t working, he got dumped from the group.  His primary reason for even joining the MEM, was that the young guys in the locker room lacked respect.  That they simply wanted the business handed to them on a silver platter, and he was going to beat some respect into them.  Then, just before he takes an extended leave, he convinces A.J. Styles not to quit wrestling.  Helps him win the World Title.  Then loses to him at their biggest Pay Per View of the year.  Now, the Stinger is back.  And I for one and very curious to hear how they are going to explain this sudden change of character.  The attack on Hogan and Abyss, which in turn helped out A.J. and Ric Flair.  And of course the relentless beating of RVD.  Neither one of these makes much sense.  You would think that after seeing what has become of Styles, that he would be the last person he would help.  Either way, this has been tried before, and it has failed.  Sting did get quite a bit of heat for the RVD thing, but that would be expected.  I just can’t wrap my head around why TNA would like to have Sting work as a bad guy?  Maybe they think that, if it worked for Hogan back in WCW, then it should work now.  Or perhaps they don’t feel that the bad guys have enough strong players on their side?  I guess we will all find out on Monday Night.  But I for one, don’t see this lasting very long.

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First off I have to say that I don’t usually post spoilers with my reviews, but because of the nature of this particular Pay Per View;  the eight man tournament, I felt it was necessary.  Secondly, I have to say that thus far I have noticed an improvement in the quality of the last two PPVs.    So let us get on with the mathces.  The first out of the gate was The Pope vs Desmond Wolfe.  These two have had at it a couple of times, and just like their prior matches this one was good.  Naturally because this was a tournament, we couldn’t expect the first round match ups to be very long, but for the time they had they put on a good show.  And you always see something original out of Wolfe.  But this time out, The Pope got the win, and advanced.  Next up was the Tag Team Champions going head to head.  Hernandez vs Matt Morgan.  On paper this looked like it would be very interesting.  Unfortunatley it was not .  Morgan is capable of pulling off a good match, but sometimes he is only as good as his opponet.  And Hernandez is still just too green.  They lumbered around the ring, and did their thing, but in the end Morgan got the victory, and at the same time he managed to screw Hernandez over a bit, thus planting the seed for their eventual demise (in my opinion)  The third first round match was Mr Anderson vs Kurt Angle.   This was certainly one of those matches that I wish had more time.  It was very good, but if it was a main event, it could have been excellent.  Angle still has lots of go left in him, and Anderson just has that ability to get the crowd going, while still putting on a great match.  After this one was done, I just could not help asking myself, why in the hell did the WWE ever let Anderson go? And yes, somehow Anderson was able to beat Kurt Angle .  Now on to the last of the first round matches.  This one featured Mick Foley vs Abyss.  The stipulations for this match were simple. It was no DQ.  And as an added bonus, both men were told that if the barbed wire bat was not used, that Abyss would be unmasked on Impact.  Now, these days, Foley has no business in a ring, and it shows.  Mercifully this one was short, and the use of thumbtacks made it a fun ending.  But despite Abyss getting the win, the bat was never used.  I guess the mask is coming off soon.  Now, as for the rest of the tournament, I will keep the other rounds winners a secret.  But your second round matchups were The Pope vs Matt Morgan, and Mr Anderson vs Abyss.  I can’t give everything away.  But I will say that I did not really expect how things eventually turned out.  But for sure the final match was a winner.  In fact, it was the final match of the card.    That had more to do with giving the men a break between rounds, but I honestly thought It was better than the World Title match between A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe.  I’ll get to them in a second, but I do want to mention the one low part of the night.  Team 3D vs The Nasty Boys.  I understand that The Nastys are Hogans boys and all, but they really are not very good.  In fact It’s almost painful to watch them lumber around the ring.  Team 3D after all these years can still get the crowd going, and put on a good match, but even they had trouble making these two stiffs look good.  And with the surprise appearance of The Nasty Boys manager at the end of the match, It looks like they will be sticking around.  But lets move on to the World Title Match.  Samoa Joe has finally rid himself of the face paint, and the whole Nation Of Violence thing, and is looking like the Joe of old.  Just a wrecking machine.  On the other hand, we now have A.J., who came out in a Ric Flair type robe, that made him look like a blue chicken, and blonde highlights in his hair.  Thankfully the changes in the looks did not affect his Wrestling ability.  As you would expect, these two had a great match.  With Flair at ringside, you have to expect some kind of funny business now and again, but for the most part it was just a solid effort from two very good Wrestlers.  So, in my opinion I would have to say that this was yet another good PPV from the Hogan/Bischoff team.  very few weak matches, and some twists you might not expect.  The only thing missing was an X-Division match, but thats for two reasons. 1) the tournament, but more importantly 2)  Destination X, is going to be an all X-Division Pay Per View.  Now THAT should be something to see.

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