Raw Talking Points For Christmas Edition of Raw

Raw had its typical holiday offering last night. There wasn’t a ton of significant things as it basically just continued a number of existing feuds. The typical diva’s Christmas costume 6-women tag match. We had the new holiday tradition of the Miracle on 34th Street fight. Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt destroyed many Christmas themed items. Hulk Hogan was the host of Raw dressed up like Santa and he was his typical boring self. If you’re into Hogan, you probably found it fun. If you have had enough of Hogan this was evidence of why you do. Still we found some talking points from this holiday for the most part throwaway Raw show.

1. Adam Rose Turns Heel on the Bunny: After a loss to R-Truth the Bunny still in his neck brace, after a couple attacks from Kane in the past week, he goes to comfort Rose after the match. Rose put a real serious beat down on the bunny. He would take off the Bunny’s neck brace and would continue the beating after the Bunny tried to escape to the outside. The highlight of the segment was the crowd chanting for Rose to throw the Bunny into the guardrail one more time. The crowd was not having any sympathy for Bunny, which was the goal of the segment. So Adam Rose is suppose to be a heel but at least on this night in Minnesota he was a face to this crowd.

2. Fandango Gets a Win: This was more about where Jack Swagger is in terms of this company. The new and improved Fandango is not exactly setting the world on fire. Swagger had almost all the offensive moves until the end. Fandango landed some kicks, went to his top rope leg drop, and actually got the win. Poor Jack Swagger has fallen down since his resurgence with his original feud with Rusev.

3. The Night for The Shield: Rollins and Cena kicked off the show and Rollins after a win last week in a cage match with the help of Brock Lesnar, Cena natural gets his win back this week after Hogan made the match for his good buddy John Cena. Roman Reigns was paired with the Big Show and was booked terrible only able to get a count out win after hitting Big Show with a superman punch over the announce table. Big Show really seems to have little interest in helping Reigns get over. Dean Ambrose meantime in the Main Event once again losses to Bray Wyatt in your typical Christmas Street fight. Overall, it was not a great night for the former members of the Shield.

4. WWE Announcers Continue To Fail: I could bring up many examples of why this is true every single week but I have a specific example this week. Natalya was in a match with Brie and she had Nikki in her corner. During the entire match, Tyson was wearing a Nikki Bella hat and there was zero reference to it the entire match. Even in the post match where Natalya pushes Nikki off the apron and notices the hat Tyson was wearing after that. She takes it off and throws it away. Announcers made zero reference to this so if you missed it can’t blame you.

5. Piper’s Pit Isn’t What It Use To Be: It was kind of a pathetic attempt at nostalgia with Roddy Piper showing up and his guest was Rusev. Piper mispronounced his name and predictably introduced Ryback who had a bow on him no less and he attempted to attack Rusev but he was able to escape. Ryback was over with Minnesota crowd so it looks like the C.M Punk comments have not affected Ryback and his face push of late. Seeing Piper and Hogan at their age is more sad and pathetic than any sort of nostalgic feel good moment.

The match quality on this show was pretty good overall but some questionable booking and little plot advancement. The biggest note was Rose heeling on Bunny and I am not even kidding about that. I didn’t hate this show but if I had missed it, I can’t say that much happened I needed to see. 

Who is the Bunny?

Forget who framed Roger Rabbit? Actually who did frame him? Never mind more importantly the internet is all a buzz, amused, slightly interested on who is the Bunny with Adam Rose. What sparked this was Dolph Ziggler making claims on Twitter that Zack Ryder was in fact the Bunny. A photo of him with the bunny as well. Oh and the bunny has his own Twitter Account not endorsed by WWE or verfied by Twitter but who cares @WWE_Bunny is awesome give him a follow.

So who is this guy and could we possibly turn this into an angle. It would make sense that someone pretending to be one of Adam Rose's "rosebuds" would attack him and likely suspect is the Bunny. He does have an evil face if you get a close look at him

So are we ready to roll with this list of suspects?

# 5 Maria Kanellis: She was a playboy bunny and also dressed up like a bunny. She has a contract with ROH so couldn't show her face on WWE T.V. It all makes perfect sense. Not really at all we just wanted an excuse to show you this picture of Maria as a Bunny as a cheap stunt to get a couple more hits. So here you go!

#4 Kurt Hawkins: Why not he kinda looks like Zack or he use to when they tagged it would make for the honest mistake of people thinking it was Ryder right? Will consider him a suspect at this point.

#3 Joey Mercury: As most know Joey works behind the scenes in WWE as a booking agent/producer for matches. I can't remember where I heard this and it could be all in my head, but I remember hearing he was a hell of a break dancer. Also someone on Twitter pointed out they believe that the person in bunny outfit is bald. Another check in the column for the former member of Straight Edge Society.

 #2 Zack Ryder: He denies it, but as Dolph Ziggler tweeted that is just what the guy who is the bunny would say. If it is him I guess I am happy for him? If this is an angle I suggested came to pass, a Ryder heeling on Rose could work and get over maybe. They have done far worse with both.

#1 Dolph Ziggler: Wait a second he had that picture with the bunny. Can't be him. Photoshopped and this is all a cleaver plot by Ziggler to point the finger elsewhere that HE in fact is the WWE BUNNY!

You want to know the most sad thing of all? I think the Bunny is more over than Rose himself. I think this would make for a good mid-card comedy angle if they really tried to have a who is the bunny angle. Perfect kind of light silly comedy that would work for most ages from young to old. Heck if the Simpson can get a cliffhanger out of who shot Mr. Burns and South Park one on who is Eric Cartman's father....why not this.

I am not a Lemon or a Rosebud....I am a bunny loving fool! 

Still A BOliever in NXT System Producing Talent?

Is it time to re-evaluate how NXT is doing at producing talent on the next level? No one will question the earlier returns from the NXT system have been fantastic. The Shield and Wyatt’s are big players on the main roster. Daniel Bryan being on mend will mean either the Shield or Wyatt’s will be in the main event of this PPV.

Looking closer at more recent NXT call-ups you see nothing but trouble. Xavier Woods was paired with R-Truth his former tag partner once upon a time in TNA. He was given the music of Brodus Clay and been on a free fall to jobberville ever since. Can’t always hit a homer no worries the sassy little Aussie Emma will make people smile. Not exactly as she started as a fan in the crowd with signs and would be plucked from that by Santino. Her dance the 400 strong at NXT do each time she comes out does nothing for the WWE Universe. A teased romance with Santino and pink cobra later this poor girl is not over as much as the red head that can’t wrestle on Total Divas.

Time to call on the big guns as Paige has been long anticipated to make her way to the main roster. The strong Anti-Diva of NXT has become the weak lucky girl that some how got a fluke win on A.J Lee. Where is she? She is gone to watch the Blackhawks with CM Punk back in Chicago. Not doing much for Paige. Even little used Alicia Fox rubs Paige’s face in the mud verbally and physically despite not winning.

What now well let’s have a party with a man dressed in a bunny suit rumoured to be Zack Ryder and a bunch of other freaks from the back not working matches dressed in crazy costumes. All part of Adam Rose’s Exotic Express that has had two times to make us all rosebuds but instead Rose has been a dud. Sorry to be a lemon but this whole act is not ready for prime time.

What has gone wrong? Bolieve it or not NXT is on a heck of losing streak at debuts. That is right Bo Dallas you better “REALLY BOLIEVE,” because things are not going well up here at the big boys table. How long before Bo Dallas is the lead singer of 3MB singing don’t stop Bolieving?

You wonder how gimmicks like Tyler Breeze and Bailey will do in the big time on the main roster. It seems just because it works at NXT is no indication that it will get over on the main roster.

Sami Zayn and Charlotte Flair might be the two best chances left in NXT at the moment. This is at least in the immediate future.

Well someone from NXT has gotten over on main roster lately actually…..Lana. To bad the one they are trying to get over is, Alexander no more, just call me Rusev. Once the Bulgarian Brute now an illegal immigrant to Russia. Well maybe he is marrying Lana. They two actually do date and believe it or not that is a shoot. The most jumbled and confusing debut I can recall in the WWE in a long time.

Triple H’s baby of NXT is not having a great success rate in the last few months. No doubt he can’t be thrilled about that and it should have an impact on how fast they are to look at any other new stars. You can take that as bad or good news for current members of the NXT roster depending on how you look at it.

It maybe time to re-access how they are debuting these talents cause the care that was taken with The Shield and the Wyatt’s has not been afforded to these recent NXT call-ups.

Condo On The Moon Getting Global and Extreme in Episode 10

I am having a fun wrestling weekend so the podcast is a little early this week. I am off to Global Wars in Toronto Saturday and taking in Alpha-1-Wrestling here in Hamilton. Kevin Steen will be on both of these events and I am looking forward to my first experience seeing ROH live. I have talked a lot about loving what ROH is doing and I am putting my money where my mouth is.

We also talk WWE and look back on Extreme Rules and a forgettable Raw.


So I am off to enjoy my wrestling weekend. I should have some exciting news over the weekend on a totally different front. Follow @CondoontheMoon for all the great stuff I am up to wrestling wise. You can also like us on facebook. Our facebook page is very jealous of our Twitter accounts success so show it some love to please.

Ten Count: 10 Matches We Would Like To See In WWE

 We are a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short with the 10 count this week. In this week's edition we will day dream a little with 10 feuds that we have not seen in WWE that we think would be pretty damn cool. Not to say all of them are possible, but we are throwing them out there none the less. Still will try and keep it realistic.

#10: Lita vs. A.J Lee: You could make a great number of feuds that involve women that have dated CM Punk let’s face it. None more appealing than this one as A.J Lee grew up idolizing Lita the recent WWE Hall of Fame inductee. It would make for an excellent match even if you leave the Punk element out of the equation.

#9: Bray Wyatt vs. Bo Dallas: At some point we all expect Bray Wyatt to become a baby face and when he does a feud with his actual brother in real life Bo Dallas you would think has to happen. I can see the promo Bray would cut in my head right now. Bo was always a dreamer and he is lying to himself. I Bolieve this feud eventually happens and it will be great.

#8 Dean Ambrose vs. John Cena: We have seen some interaction with these two with Ambose as part of The Shield. If the two ever got together in a one on one feud it could be excellent. John Cena when pushed by someone who can go in the ring always does his best work. On the mic Ambrose can hold his own with anyone and would no doubt drop some verbal jabs on Cena that all his haters would enjoy.

#7 Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro: Forgive me for not knowing if this ever happened in ROH but the two alums from that company can go in the ring for days. In ring this match would carry the goods and both have the potential to get it done on the microphone as well. It would be fun to see these guys work a program.

#6 Tyler Breeze vs. Adam Rose: These two characters seem to fit together well and I wouldn’t doubt we see this match-up in NXT if Rose is around long enough for it to happen. Prince Pretty vs. the Party starter Adam Rose seems like something that could be fun. Breeze not being considered cool enough to party with Adam Rose and your off and running. In the ring we have not seen the best of either, but if you believe what people say both have potentially to be very good. 

 

#5 Adam Cole vs. Sami Zayn: These next two feuds involve people currently not signed to WWE but what the heck were going make it happen here. Adam Cole is the current ROH Champion and I have no doubt will find his way to the WWE. The in ring style of both would make for some incredible matches. Cole is getting very good with a microphone in his hand, while Zayn continues to improve in that area. Why does this happen? Simple if Cole came in he would claim to be the rising star that everyone thinks Zayn already is. I think that qualifies as one of J.R’s personally issues and goes back to something we said in this blog about wanting to be the best.

#4 Kevin Steen vs. Luke Harper: I am sure this likely took place on the Indies somewhere. You want a crazy flat out brawl this is a match that will deliver the goods. Steen can talk on the microphone with anyone in this business and he can go with someone with Harper’s rough and tumble style. Heck if you add in Eric Rowan and Steen’s former tag partner Sami Zayn and this is a heck of a tag-team match. Steen is not signed in WWE of course but rumours are out there he had a great try out. This would be a great feud for him to showcase his in ring style.

#3 Roman Reigns vs. The Rock: Yes Roman Reigns is likely heading to face HHH at some point and could some day be the man in this company. How cool would it be to see him get in the ring with the most famous of all his relations in a match? We already saw the two interact with Reigns as part of the Shield. Give him a year or maybe two and this makes a hell of a Mania match or any other big show the WWE would put it on. There are a lot of questions on if The Rock would ever wrestle again but for a member of his extended family you have a better shot at convincing him to come back and do it.

 #2 Daniel Bryan vs. Brock Lesnar: A modern day David and Goliath match-up this would be. WWE loves to book Bryan as the under dog and is there a match on earth where he would be a bigger one than in this one? My answer is a flat out no to that, so that is why this match makes so much sense. There were rumours that the Undertaker actually wanted to work with Bryan at this past Mania. Why not use those as Bryan’s motivation to get what Brock took away from him. The chance to beat the streak and go down in history. While it is no secret that Lesnar has already stated several times about being the uncrowned number on contender and wants the belt.  You don’t even need the Undetaker stuff other than Brock having beaten The Streak. Still you internet fans are aware of the rumours and it only adds another layer of awesome to this match-up.
 
#1 CM Punk vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin: WWE teased us with this and it is the one match in wrestling that I truly want to see above all others. More than a few problems in making it happen of course but these two seem destined to fight and made for each other. If Punk had been around in the attitude era I have no doubt in saying a feud with he and Austin would be considered one of the best of that era. Which given that era is saying a lot. Would it be as good now as it would have been than? On the microphone it will be as both guys still know how to cut a promo. In ring it might not be as good but Punk proved he can work well with an older rusty talent in his match with the Undertaker. I believe it is the only match Austin would come back for. I also believe this is a match that gives CM Punk his final goal to achieve in wrestling to Main Event a Wrestlemania. The WWE needs a hell of an attraction if they plan to go to Cowboy’s stadium and look to have a crowd of over 100,000 people in attendance. This IS THAT ATTRACTION and it will bring all those people that use to be wrestling fans back into the fold. Will it ever happen….hope is fading fast on this one!

Obviously there are a million of these you can come up with so you’re invited to suggest your own. Love to hear your suggestions. In this we tried to keep it as realistic as possible with no real dream matches other than perhaps Punk vs. Austin and Rock vs Reigns. Also we tried to only use each talent once as you could see several good options for many of the top talent to work in programs with.

Hope we came up with some solid matches that you agree would be fun to see. There is not one on this list that I wouldn’t love to see happen at some point.

To keep up with everything going on in the Condo on the Moon like us on Facebook and help us spread the word about this wrestling blog to wrestling fans near and far. 

Raw Notebook: April 14th, 2014

Back to reality that another Wrestlemania has come and gone. Add in the fact the WWE wanted to do a tribute to the Ultimate Warrior and your New Word Champion is on his honeymoon it was a lot to deal with. It led to a show that tried but pretty much failed for the most part.

The one thing they didn’t fail at was the tribute to the Warrior that I felt that was not as over the top as I feared it could be. A nice tribute off the top of the show and a nice tribute by the Uso’s both wearing half of Warrior face paint in their match. Some video packages sprinkled through the show and a bit of some tacky promotion for “Warrior Week” on the WWE Network. I was a little uncomfortable personally with the use of the Warrior's speech from last week. I understand using it but I think for a lot of folks it had to be a little disturbing.

The other takeaways from the show included the most unique exchanges between two wrestlers in a long time. I thought the build to Bray Wyatt and John Cena was one of the best heading into Wrestlemania. The match itself did not get the live reaction that you would have thought. I still felt the match was good however despite that. Clearly this feud was set to continue and we got confirmation of that tonight.

Bray Wyatt would call out John Cena to the ring claiming to want to have fun. This came after proclaiming that John Cena was still lying to us all. Cena would come out and cut the most awful promo with terrible photo shopped props on the big screen. John Cena is not funny and when he tries to be funny it leads to some of the worst he has ever cut in his life. When he was the heel and cool rapper gimmick his humour was somewhat tolerable but in his current role it is just jokes that are made to make kids pop and I don’t even think the kids do. But Bray Wyatt to his credit called John out for his terrible comedy routine and this all would lead to the announcement of Steel Cage match between the two at Extreme Rules.

Daniel Bryan was not around so this show would focus around The Shield. Triple H said to Orton and Batista that they needed to focus on The Shield and take care of that problem. Orton and Batista failed to agree and later in the night would get swarm attacked by the Shield during a match with Usos. Triple H and Steph greeted the two backstage and basically Triple H said simply I told you so. Later in the night it would be announced against mystery opponents in the main event.  It turned into some sort of 11 on 3 farce of a match that would lead to Evolution reformed minus Ric Flair down to the ring to beat down The Shield. The Crowd reaction was for the most part muted and unimpressed by the return of Evolution. Reaction online seemed much more positive than the live audience.

Stephanie also did her best impression of dad and laid into Kane. The end result of this Corporate Kane is dead and masked Kane is coming back and looking to take out the New World Champion Daniel Bryan. This apparently is the first program for Daniel Bryan which if this is case is pretty damn brutal start for the Daniel Bryan title reign.

This Raw was a major step backwards and not something that gets fans all that encouraged for the post mania stretch .Will see if the return of Bryan can save this whole thing returning next week.

Oh I  forgot one major thing the WWE’s latest attempt to make you think the Intercontinental Title means something with #1 contenders tournament with 8 participants.  It produced the match of the night with Ziggler against Barrett with Barrett getting the win. Other winners were Cesaro over Mark Henry, Sheamus over  Swagger and RVD over Del Rio.  I don’t think this tournament along will get over the I-C belt or the Champion Big-E (Langston) so I would think winner of this will become the champion. If they want to really get that person over they should challenge Dean Ambrose and unify the U.S and I-C Title.

Other things that happened of little note….Paige had a match with Alicia Fox and we had more promos for both Bo Dallas and Adam Rose. I love men in bunny suits losing at hungry hippos. It is awesome…this edition of Raw was not.

IWC Podcast with Guest Jason Agnew from The Law

It is our pleasure to welcome another great guest to the program this week. Jason Agnew has been one of the Co-Host's of The Law for well over a decade. You can hear The Law on TSN 1050 every Sunday night at 11pm. We talk about the two big stories of the week the end of the Undertaker's Streak and the death of  the Ultimate Warrior after having just been on WWE programming for first time in a long time. A great thrill to talk with Jason and be on Title Bout Trivia on The Law this weekend. Chris and myself offer our takes on Mania and the night after Raw.


You can catch Jason talking about the latest NXT on his podcast over on The Law website on the Fight Network. It was great to have Jason come on board and hope to have him back as well as perhaps some other members from The Law family.

A New Era For Wrestling Is Dawning

A new era has begun in the WWE and where it started will trace back to this weekend in New Orleans. You got to see many young talents be given a larger position in the company from Cesaro, The Shield and Wyatt’s all being treated on a different level. We also saw the next wave of NXT being set up to make their way to the main roster. The official debut of Rusev with a squash of Zack Ryder was perhaps the least of these. You saw the NXT Women’s Champion appear and on her first night ended the 295 day reign of A.J Lee. Paige on her first night like Gail Kim did on her debut in WWE becoming the Diva’s/Women's Champion respectively. In addition we saw vignettes for both Bo Dallas and Adam Rose to soon be part of the mix as well.

The crowd the night after Wrestlemania has become the standard of what all crowds the rest of the year will be measured against. They are energized and will make noise no matter what you put in front of them. It is a party like atmosphere that has become some what of Holy Grail for wrestling fans. You watch from home and can’t help but want to be a part of the party.

There is a lot of division on having the Undertaker’s streak end but maybe it is the best way to symbolize we are at the start of new era. You can certainly take issue with who ended the streak but maybe this is a way to start making the transition to Wrestlemania being about current stars and not stars of the past.

Daniel Bryan sits at the top of all this change that is fixing to happen and his success will likely have a big impact on if this changing of the guard is going to happen sooner or later. You can see by subtle little things that this time is different for Daniel Bryan he is truly being given the ball. He will have a lot of support though with so many people on the rise.

What people need to understand though is while the hardcore fans see all this excitement to come the numbers are not there yet. The WWE released the first numbers on the WWE Network which were not terrible but not over the top. An article in the New York Times goes in depth on this but basically WWE announced they have 667,287 people on the WWE Network. They have set a goal to have 1 million subscribers by the end of 2014. The stock for the WWE did not react well to the news after being at record high levels dropped $4.12 to a per share price of $23.90.

The WWE Network has only been launched domestically in the U.S. It is hard to think they can grow that number unless wrestling experiences a major revival that we have not seen in a long time. In addition very little info has been out there about the future of where WWE programming will be on traditional broadcast television. The WWE’s window to deal exclusively with USA Network has come and gone. No word on anything since in terms of other companies getting in the mix to get WWE programming.

Even talk from Vince McMahon that he might someday consider selling his majority stake in the company. As far as the WWE Network goes I would suspect they will attempt to speed up launch of the network internationally in places like here in Canada and U.K if there is any danger of missing that million subscriber’s target. WWE at the announcement of the launch of the Network stated that they would be looking at going international by end of 2014 or spring of 2015 so it would not be a big leap to get it going in the fall.

As far as those T.V deals go and where WWE lands there has been speculation that they could double or even triple their rights fees. This is something that seems crazy when you consider the drop off in viewers from wrestling’s boom till now. Still Raw has become not unlike pro sports in it is something that they will say is appointment television like live sporting events and can’t be missed. After years of trying to stress the WWE is about entertainment they now have pulled a 180 degree turn and trying to consider themselves sports. The various sports leagues have been getting record numbers for rights fees and that is only expected to continue with the NBA’s T.V deal in 2015. Even lesser sports like NASCAR and MLS Soccer have netted pretty attractive numbers recently.

You may find all of this business chat boring or not concerning you but in the end it does. I hate to break it to you but just like in the last number of decades you have had it driven in your head that sports is a business so is the WWE and wrestling in general. With WWE being the most complex of those companies in wrestling business to truly understand. 

So at the end of the day Daniel Bryan and all these young guys will only go as far as the company being profitable and succeeding will take them. I would suspect with T.V deal still in the works the ratings for WWE Raw will be examined and mean the most they have since the Monday Night Wars.

As far as the rest of the wrestling world they need the WWE to be successful in order for them to be to some extent. The days of anyone challenging the WWE in a serious way are long gone. If the WWE creates or draws back older wrestling fans that befit everyone as it trickles down.

The truth is 2014 will be a very important year for wrestling and where it is heading. While the product is getting more exciting in not just the WWE but in other places it all comes down to people buying the product. You can have the best product in the world but you need people to consume it for it to be truly deemed successful.