Category: WWE

At a press conference in Mexico City, WWE announced that former CMLL star Mistico will perform for the company as Sin Cara. For those of you not familiar with Mistico, he’s been the lead face in CMLL for the last six years and one of the biggest draws (of any kind) in all of Mexico.

Time will tell if Sin Cara can make the transition from luch libre to the WWE television style, but the signing will surely nab viewers in Mexico and other countries where CMLL is popular. The WWE has been aggressively pursuing viewers in Central America and Latin America for the last few years. Signing the biggest face in CMLL will go a long way in those markets.

Check out the clip of Mistico embedded above and let me know what you think (please). I absolutely love his tilt-a-whirl head-scissors take-down that transitions into an arm-bar submission. It’s a nice, modern twist on a classic move.

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Here’s a video of The Undertaker’s (expected) return, as well as Triple H’s (surprise) return. It looks like they’ll be facing off at WretleMania XXVII. As I mentioned to RPadholic RROD, Taker’s pop wasn’t huge because most people knew it was him featured in the teaser videos for 2/21/11. Hunter got a bigger pop since that surprised most fans. In addition to the Triple H surprise, I love how the two of them told a story without words.

‘Taker will be trying to extend his WrestleMania undefeated streak. Hunter can be the face by trying at avenge Shawn Michaels’ loss to The Undertaker at last year’s WrestleMania. He could also go heel and try to prove he’s better than Shawn — while pissing on HBK’s hall of fame induction on WrestleMania weekend — by ending The Undertaker’s streak. Either way, I see The Undertaker adding another notch.

Please let me know what you think of the setup and share your prediction for the angle/match.

During Chris Jericho’s promotional tour for his book Undisputed How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps, he told numerous reporters that he considers Shawn Michaels the best wrestler of all time. Let’s have some fun with today’s poll and debate the point. While I’m a huge HBK mark, I don’t consider him the greatest of all time. That designation goes to…

…”The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. It’s a close argument and I can see both sides. Michaels had a greater aerial arsenal than Flair, but Ric was better at mat wrestling. Both were capable of carrying scrubs to great matches. There are two things that put Flair ahead of Michaels in my book. First, Flair was extremely effective as a heel and a face. Michaels was much better at being a face than a heel. Flair is one of the greatest talkers of all time. While Michaels cut some great promos, I don’t think he’s in the same league as Flair on the mic.

Not it’s your turn! Kindly vote and discuss when you have a moment.

[poll id=”102″]

Here’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s fantastic promo from last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw. It’s just brilliant stuff on multiple levels. He’s simply amazing on the mic, but it’s cool to see that he’s genuinely having fun and truly touched by the amazing crowd response. (When was the last time you heard a crowd pop like that, btw?)

Now for the downer — some of the best parts of the promo have been edited out. That’s like abridging Shakespeare. Why?!?

On last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw, the WWE announced that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be the special host of WrestleMania XXVII. The Rock cut a brilliant promo — one of the best face promos in years — calling out WWE Superstars The Miz and John Cena. Several people have come to the conclusion that The Miz will successfully defend his title and John Cena will win the right to face him on Sunday’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event. This would lead to a WWE Championship match between the two at WrestleMania XXVII.

The Miz facing off with The Rock is a natural. Love him or hate him — and I still think it’s hilarious that some of you think he’s “unworthy” — there’s no denying that The Miz has been one of the best heels on the microphone over the last few years. His future exchanges with The Rock will be memorable.

Cena and The Rock is, perhaps, more interesting. Cena has been critical of The Rock for “abandoning” the WWE for Hollywood. Mixing in some reality into “sports entertainment” has always led to some of the best angles in the WWE. I’m terribly interested to see how far they go with it. Last night The Rock ripped into Cena’s merchandise and silly catchphrase. One easy and obvious comeback would be The Tooth Fairy.

Although The Rock will only be a WWE regular for a short period of time, his presence has already invigorated the WWE. It’s been years since I’ve seen a face totally capture a crowd the way he did last night. It was an excellent reminder of how extraordinary he was — and still is! — on the microphone. If you didn’t mark out then you don’t really like pro-wrestling.

The NY Daily News has reported a rumor that Sting (Steve Borden) has signed a one-year contract with the WWE. The rumor coincides with WWE promos showing a mystery man that will make his debut on February 21, 2011. The dirt sheets have speculated that 2/21/11 will be the return of The Undertaker or Triple H, but Sting would be an interesting choice that makes a certain amount of sense.

Sting is one of the few NWA/WCW stars that has never wrestled for the WWE. This year’s WrestleMania takes place in Atlanta, GA — a huge WCW town. The WWE also owns the rights to Sting’s best matches. The speculation is that Sting will return for a brief program with The Undertaker, promote a best of Sting DVD, and be inducted into the WWE hall of fame.

I used to be a huge Sting mark back in the day. I loved the neon-wearing, rat-tail version of Sting. His matches with Ric Flair were outstanding. (Though to be fair, anyone could have an outstanding match with Flair in those days.) I never warmed up to the “Crow” version of Sting and the TNA version was a shell of his former self. While he’s definitely limited and not what he used to be, I believe that The Undertaker could help him pull off one more excellent match.

Although this rumor makes sense on paper, I’m going to wait for more information before I start buying into it. Part of it is that I would love for Sting to have one last run and would love for the WWE to roll out the red carpet for him. If I started believing the rumor and it didn’t pan out, I’d be disappointed. Part of it is that a lot of Sting’s recent work in TNA seemed sloppy — the result of a worker that’s unmotivated and disinterested. Perhaps a final run on the big stage combined with money from DVD sales will motivate Steve Borden to turn back the clock and become the Stinger of old.

What do you think of this rumor? Does the prospect of Sting in the WWE excite you? Have any of you seen his pre-Crow matches?

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WWE’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view event had some nice surprises. To briefly recap the PPV, World Heavyweight Champion Edge and WWE Champion The Miz retained their respective titles. Booker T and Diesel (Kevin Nash) surprised the crowd and received huge pops for their participation in the Royal Rumble match. When the dust cleared, Alberto Del Rio emerged as the winner of the Rumble.

It was nice to see Booker and Nash work for their old company, though I hope they’re done. Neither of them are what they used to be. I do think it’s hilarious that Nash dyed his hair to play the Diesel character again; Nash has repeatedly said that he wants to work as a “silver fox” character but Vince McMahon hates his gray hair. I love that WWE went with Del Rio as the winner. He’s relatively new, he does great work in the ring, he’s above average on the mic, and his personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez makes me laugh.

Anyway, let me know what you made of Del Rio’s win and the Royal Rumble PPV (please).