Tag: WWE

Coffee Talk #92: Three Reasons Why You Should Watch WWE NXT

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Jaime Kennedy missing Jennifer Love Hewitt’s birthday, how the WrestleMania card is shaping up, or the Taylor Swift backlash, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

As some of you know, WWE NXT debuts tonight. The show pairs eight WWE “rookies” with eight seasoned mentors. It’s a fun concept that should lead to some cool storylines, but I’m super excited for NXT for one reason: Bryan Danielson (now Daniel Bryan). Here are three reasons Danielson will make NXT worth watching.

1) You might be watching a legend in the making. Danielson has been one of my favorite indie wrestlers for years. Whether it was with Ring of Honor or Pro-Wrestling Guerilla, his matches almost always delivered. His technical skills are amazing — as good or better than 90 percent of the current WWE roster — and he can fly a bit too. When it comes to pure skills, he’s already one of the best in the business and hopefully he makes the most out of his WWE opportunity.

2) He might be the second coming of Chris Benoit. Remember Benoit in his prime? He had the perfect blend of mat wrestling and charismatic aggression. Fans didn’t care that his mic skills were below average and that he wasn’t the biggest guy on the roster. He connected with fans through outstanding skills that were utilized in an appealing fashion. Danielson has similar qualities, though he’s slightly better on the mic. I’d love for the WWE to push a guy with excellent mat skills, similar to how it pushed Benoit and Eddie Guerrero.

3) Danielson and The Miz are the perfect team. The pairing is genius. Anyone that knows wrestling understands that Danielson can wrestle circles around The Miz. They also know that The Miz’s mic work is extraordinary and Danielson can learn a lot from it. It will be fun watching The Miz try to teach Danielson how to be a “star”. It’s a nice clash of styles and personalities that should lead to some great television.

I’m not saying NXT is going to be the best WWE show starting today. I’m saying that it will be worth watching because it will be a chance to watch a star-in-the-making from his first day in WWE. It’s a loose analogy, but it kind of reminds me of watching Derek Jeter in the minor leagues and following his entire career to this day. With a bit of luck, Danielson will go from The Miz’s sidekick to WWE world heavyweight champion. He’s certainly talented enough.

Are any of you planning to watch WWE NXT?

Edit: Here’s a bonus clip of Bryan Danielson vs. Jack Evans. Danielson puts Jack over and does some cool comedic spots at a PWG show.

WWE Shad Gaspard in the Running for Conan Movie

WWE Superstar Shad Gaspard (the big guy in Cryme Tyme) is one of the finalists for the role of Ukafa in the upcoming Conan movie. According to WorstPreviews:

Gaspard has now updated his blog again, this time stating that he has passed the first part of casting and that the role is now down to him and only a few other actors. If he ends up getting hired he will star in the movie opposite Jason Momoa (“Stargate: Atlantis”), who has already been cast as Conan.

Gaspard is a huge man, but he’s also a huge nerd. When I met him at WWE SummerSlam 2009, he told me that he enjoyed comics as a kid, but the comic-book club wouldn’t let him join because he was a jock. He totally nerded out at San Diego Comic-Con 2009 too! On behalf of WWE fans and nerds around the world, I hope Shad gets the role.

Source vis N8R

Analyzing the WWE Elimination Chamber PPV

Yesterday I was still recovering from DICE and having visitors over the weekend, which made me completely forget about the WWE Elimination Chamer pay-per-view. Thankfully, N8R reminded me about it. Let’s take a look at the booking and talk about it.

WWE Championship — John Cena Wins: I hate saying this because John Cena is a really nice guy and he works extremely hard, but I hate watching him wrestle. He is my second-least favorite “top guy” in WWE. I was extremely annoyed that he was booked to win the WWE strap at this PPV. I couldn’t think of anything worse until….

Batista Beats Cena for the WWE Championship: Mr. McMahon made Cena defend the belt right after the first elimination chamber match ended. Batista beat him for it. Ugh. Batista is awful. I want to like him because he’s half Filipino and his book was a 9.5 on the unintentional comedy scale, but he just sucks. He can’t wrestle. He gasses on the way to the ring because he suffers from asthma and his second wind lasts about 90 seconds. Unlike Cena, “Big Dave” doesn’t work hard and is, by most accounts, a dick. I was hoping it would be Batista/McMahon vs. Cena/Hart at WrestleMania, with no championships on the line, but it doesn’t look that way.

Chris Jericho Wins the World Championship: This was great booking. The world championship match came down to Jericho and The Undertaker. ‘Taker was about to win when Shawn Michaels appeared and gave him “sweet chin music”. This sets up Jericho vs. Edge and HBK vs. ‘Taker at WrestleMania. The mic work leading up to Jericho/Edge will be fantastic, while HBK and Taker will probably steal the show again.

And the Rest: That was a Gilligan’s Island reference. It worked (really). The rest of the PPV looked crappy on paper. The one highlight was The Miz talking about mentoring Bryan Danielson (now Daniel Bryan in WWE) on NXT. The Miz said something like, “Bryan may be an Internet legend, but when I look at him I see the first guy in line at a Star Wars convention.” Danielson is a damn genius in the ring, but he definitely needs help on the mic. The Miz should help him get over in a big way.

TNA Impact Moving to Mondays Starting on March 8, 2010

Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling announced that it will move its TNA Impact program to Monday nights, competing head-to-head with WWE’s Monday Night Raw show. TNA Impact will air from 9PM to 11PM, but only every other episode will be live. In today’s press release, TNA personality and creative consultant Hulk Hogan said:

Monday nights are now officially the best night of the week to be a fan of professional wrestling. My mantra has been ‘change is coming’ since partnering with Dixie Carter and TNA Wrestling. This change is great for the business and all fans of professional wrestling will benefit because of it.

The Monday night wars are back! While TNA did a good job and snagged strong ratings when it went up against Monday Night Raw on January 4, 2010, it still got trounced by WWE. While the organization has a ton of talent, its writing and production seem minor league compared to its chief competitor’s. Will TNA improve its writing and spend more on production? (Perhaps TNA should hire some of the writing talent behind the excellent WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010.)

What do you think of the return of the Monday night wars? Do you think it will push both companies to improve? Is TNA biting off more than it can chew? Do you see yourself flipping between both shows similar to the WWF vs. WCW days?

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PadCast: Ring of Honor World Champion Austin Aries!

Last Friday I went to a Ring of Honor show in Los Angeles and caught up with world champion Austin Aries, fresh off his victory over Jushin “Thunder” Liger. Whether you call him the RoH champion, A-Double, the vascular vegetarian, or MV3, there’s no denying that Aries is one of the most talented wrestlers in the world. It was an honor chatting about videogames, karaoke, being vegetarian, being pro-choice, naked Shawn Michaels, women with meat in their mouth, and the writing in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw with Aries. It was also fun goofing off with a friend (ha!). Check out this very special RPad.tv PadCast with the master of the brainbuster and the owner of the most devastating 450 splash in the universe!

Were Your Surprised That Edge Won the WWE Royal Rumble?

As expected, WWE Superstar Edge made his return at yesterday’s Royal Rumble. While his return was rumored for weeks, a lot of dirt-sheet writers were surprised that he won. Most were expecting John Cena to win, while a lot of fans were pulling for Shawn Michaels. I was expecting a Cena victory (to put him in the main event in WrestleMania), but was hoping HBK would win to set up a match with The Undertaker. (To be honest, I knew Shawn wasn’t going to win since the writers have been pushing that angle too hard.)

At the end of the day, the WWE writers gave the Rumble victory to The Rated-R Superstar. This sets up all sorts of interesting matches. Which belt do you think Edge will go after? Who do you think his WrestleMania opponent will be? I’d love for Jericho to get one of the straps so that the two could have a grudge match at Mania. The mic work leading up to the fight would be awesome.

Can You Spot All the WWE Superstars in the MacGruber Trailer?

There are currently six WWE Superstars involved in the MacGruber movie and five of them can be found in this trailer. 50 RPad points will be awarded to anyone that can spot them all. If Dumbledore can randomly award points then so can I (just don’t ask what the points are good for).

I really don’t “get” MacGruber. Some of the sketches were fun, but I never thought of Will Forte as someone that was funny enough to carry a movie. Those “Falconer” sketches?!? Half the time I was laughing at how bad they were. The good news for the movie is that it has a strong supporting cast, included some excellent WWE Superstars!

Brock Lesnar Blames Canada, Speaks Out Against Obamacare

Former WWE Superstar and current UFC fighter Brock Lesnar had some choice words for Canada after dealing with a life-threatening illness. During an interview with ESPN, “The Next Big Thing” took a shot at Canadian health care and the health-care reform efforts in America:

I went to the hospital in Canada, realized quickly that I had to get out of Canadian health care and get back to Bismarck in the United States.

It was like I was in a third-world country, I just looked at my wife and she saved my life and I had to get out of there. The only reason I’m mentioning this, I’m mentioning it to the United States of America because President Obama is looking for health-care reform and I don’t want it. I’m speaking on behalf of Americans. I’m speaking on behalf of our doctors in the United States that don’t want this to happen and neither do I.

It should be noted that Lesnar was comparing a presumably tiny hospital in rural Canada to The Mayo Clinic. The comparison is a bit…silly, but if he wants to use that to form his opinion on health-care reform…well, he’s a big guy and I’m not going to him that he’s being stupid.

Confession: I Want to See Tooth Fairy

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I want to see Tooth Fairy starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. As a wrestling fan, I feel it’s my duty to support his movie career. Supporting The Rock’s movie career will help other sports entertainers be accepted as…uh…entertainer entertainers. Plus, he’s just good in that macho-man-becomes-sensitive-guy role (see The Game Plan).

Plus, the movie has Julie Andrews! I forget that this woman is alive and still bringing it. She was brilliant in The Sound of Music. It’s amazing that she’s entertaining a whole new generation of moviegoers more than 40 years later with excellent movies like Enchanted and Shrek 2. She deserves a Nobel prize for four decades of awesomness (I think they give one out for that, no?).

So there’s my confession. Any chance any of you are interested in the movie?

TNA vs. WWE: The Monday Night Wars Return!!!

Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. There’s no chance (no chance in hell) that TNA is going to beat out WWE in Nielsen ratings tonights. The war is for one night only (for now), but pro-wrestling hasn’t had this kind of excitement since WCW went under. For better and for worse, it all stems from Hulk Hogan signing with TNA. Just look at some of things that will go down tonight:

– The Outsiders will reunite on TNA Impact. Scott Hall and Sean Waltman are reuniting with Kevin Nash to reform one of the most dominant factions the business has ever known. For years, fans ate up The Outsiders/Wolfpack/NWO. It’ll be huge for (at least) one night.

– Bret “The Hitman” Hart will return to WWE for what should be the start of a three-month angle. From what I understand, Hart signed a contract the runs until WrestleMania. Whether he’s used to feud against Vince McMahon or Sean Michaels (or both!), this is tremendous. As an HBK mark, I’m anti-Bret, but there’s no denying that this is a pretty big deal. Too bad Goldberg’s lack of wrestling skills ruined The Hitman.

– Along with Hulk Hogan taking up a bunch of time on TNA, there are rumors that he’ll be joined by Ric Flair, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam, Ken Anderson (Mr. Kennedy), The Nasty Boys, Shannon Moore, and more. I’m surprised TNA didn’t do a better job hyping some of these “surprise guests”. Perhaps some of the deals went down to the wire, but the company needs all the juice it can get going into tonight.

– Rumored guests for Monday Night Raw include The Rock (he has that Tooth Fairy movie, after all) and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Imagine Hart, The Rock, and Austin being on the same show again? That would rule!!!

The bottom line is the competition is good for both companies. Everyone will be bringing their A-game tonight, which will be brilliant for wrestling fans. I’m definitely sticking with Raw, but I’ll surely flip back and forth a few times. Stuff like this is what DVRs were made for.

What show are you most excited for tonight? TNA Impact? Or WWE Monday Night Raw?