Why CM Punk Is Not Walking Though That Door Till After July

 There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in WWE and not a lot of it has do with what is going on in the ring of late. More than a few people on the talent side of this company are not all that happy with the money that is coming their way. They have a right to be upset but technically the WWE isn’t doing anything wrong. So for those still holding out hope for C.M Punk to return prior to his contract coming due in July it isn’t happening and here is why. In my view, it is not that his body is too beat up to compete. This is a man that once made a return from a fractured skull ahead of time required to heal. It is not about being constantly harassed by fans which if that were a problem he would have been gone long before he was. I think without knowing anything personally, this is about Punk getting his fair share and in the end money. I am not saying Punk is greedy, I actually think he is taking a stand and setting the agenda or precedent for all contracts in the WWE for talent in the post WWE Network era. More about the morals of the whole thing and taking a stand.

To understand what is going on do you remember the Hollywood writers strike that got rid of all your favourite shows?  It was a dispute largely based on the right to compensation for writers that had their work used for digital content. The writers in their contracts did not have any rights to profit from it and hence were paid nothing extra based on that. They felt this was wrong and had a strike and walked out. Writers are part of a union and wrestlers are not. Jessie Ventura a large part of his issues with Hulk Hogan is based on Hogan killing an attempt at union Ventura was trying to create back in the 1980’s. Still in 2014 many feel a union will never be part of professional wrestling industry.

So the WWE Network unlike traditional PPV is digital content and as such wrestler’s payoffs for PPV’s have been drastically reduced. It is only common sense with two major cable providers dropping their PPV’s in the U.S. There has been other talk about video game payoffs being reduced as well but that might have been not of the WWE’s doing. THQ the makers of their video game series up until WWE 13 went bankrupt. It is safe to assume in the hurry to make sure the WWE video game came out on a time a rather quick deal was cut to ensure a game would be made. The WWE likely didn’t do so well on that deal based on being up against the clock. No, this is primarily a war over digital content and the future of how the company will be handled.

Punk had stated in his interview with Ariel Helwani that the WWE had not yet met with talent to explain how the WWE Network would affect their pay. This was the weekend prior to Punk leaving back in January of this year. It has been reported by several respected wrestling journalists and publications that to the best of their knowledge that meeting for talent has still not taken place in the middle of May.

The recent issues with Batista recently being reported likely have more to do with money promised than the promise of a run with WWE World Championship. Everybody really does have a price and that is a shoot as far as wrestling goes. WWE has not been meeting his to levels they had promised.

So that is why Punk likely is not back until later that his contract set to expire in July. If it was a shoot that he signed his contract the night of defeating John Cena at Money in the Bank that would make it July 17th 2014. Many say it simply goes to end of June. In any case for any Ring of Honor fans expecting CM Punk to show up in Nashville, Tennessee it is not going happen just based on the fact the contract will not be done with WWE. Also from all the reports that I have heard Punk is still being paid and their may be an understanding between the two that if he remains quiet that will continue.

I mean think about if Punk was retired why would someone known for being so outspoken have not taken to any forum open to him and speak is mind.

So in the end, C.M Punk maybe doing everyone in WWE a favour by sitting at home waiting for his contract to end, time will tell.  He may be just a greedy, smart and at the end of the day shrewd business man. At the end of the day a guy who in wrestling likes to have power could make himself the most powerful free agent in wrestling if he irons out a new contract that deals with the digital content and compensation issues. While Punk will likely not share that info with the public, I am sure he would to people he consider friends in the company.

At that point when the cat is out of the bag the WWE may have to look at re-working all the talents contracts.  This is something the WWE is trying very hard to avoid at all costs. It should be made clear that Vince McMahon is the biggest advocate to get Punk back. So it all makes for an interesting plot to sort out for the WWE. They still have yet to have a confirmation on where their T.V deal is at as well. While the product in the ring has been rocky with highs and lows since Wrestlemania the business side of things has become even crazier.

CM Punk may be the guy that sets the rules for the new world of WWE Contracts. If Batista doesn’t comeback after his break to promote his movie and Punk is not talking with them in July after his contract expires it might be reason to raise eyebrows assuming no one else causes a fuss prior to that. Funny how John Cena the face of the company is not all that concerned about things least not that anyone has said.  I guess when you are on that level they pay you enough to earn your silence.

This will be a year that will drastically impact on the future of the WWE for perhaps a generation to come and very little of it will be happening in a squared circle.

My Fun Wrestling Weekend

So I had a heck of a wrestling weekend at both the Global Wars Show in Toronto and here in Hamilton with Alpha-1-Wrestling. It made me feel more like a wrestling fan again and reminded me why I love this business. I also started a new job with Between the Ropes and did an article for them on Global Wars. I am not sure if what I wrote there or here can do the live event experience justice. I have been in bigger crowds and louder crowds but would be hard pressed to find a more passionate crowd.

The one constant at both shows was meeting Kevin Steen. It confirmed a lot of things I had thought about him already. He is just a nice guy and so appreciative of all of his fans from the smallest to the biggest he is so nice to them all. I had like three separate little conversations with him. Never got around to hey would you like to talk for my pod cast because it seemed wrong some how. But I am sure I can still share them with you on the pod cast this week from my point of view. He is highly entertaining and is it large crowd or small it is fairly obvious he is the biggest personality in the room.

This was my first time going to ROH and my first time going to an independent wrestling show. Both were fun in different ways. When you go to an independent show you quickly realize almost every thing you say can be heard if you yell it loud enough. Rooting against over 1100 fans for the Young Bucks was a losing battle. You also get funny moments being closer to the action. Like during Steen’s match in Hamilton a “Kill Steen Kill” chant broke out not as loud but just as passionate as the night before in Toronto. Kevin pointed to his shirt and said today is “Fight Steen Fight” maybe because it was Mother’s Day or just a more family oriented show I don’t know.  But proving just how over he is with people the chant instantly changed to “Fight Steen Fight.”

I had at that show in Hamilton from an invitation to come from Ethan Page who was on with us on the pod cast a few weeks back. This was a really stacked show with a lot of ROH Talent deciding to opt for the quick trip down the QEW to be part of this show. Also the show featured Tommy Dreamer of ECW fame. Aside from Kevin you had Michael Elgin, Jimmy Jacobs and Kyle O’Reilly.

Page lost the promotion’s top championship in a match with a guy that has an Italian soccer player gimmick. Which if you are from Hamilton makes total sense as gimmick in this town as anyone who visits during the World Cup will know. They announced that recently released TNA talent Chris Sabin will be on their next show in July.

So my fun wrestling weekend is over and now it is back to the reality of Raw and WWE that has not exactly been hitting home runs of late. Heck a nice bunt single would be nice. Maybe the warm after glow of a great wrestling weekend will make the show seem better.

My Thanks to Kevin Steen and Adam Cole for giving me a lasting memento of this weekend signing my Border Wars ticket.

 They did not disappoint me by putting on the amazing match I thought they would and knew they could.  Both Steen and Cole got a chuckle of my promotion for their match as Mount Rushmore explodes. As a play off the old Savage vs. Hogan Mega Powers explode. I told you before all things wrestling with me lead back or eventually to Randy Savage.

6 Degrees of Separation in Wrestling to Randy Savage…maybe that is a future feature for the blog? Will see but for now just thankful to have had a great fun wrestling weekend and remember why I love this crazy stuff.

ROH's Time Is Now

It has already been a big year for ROH but where it will be truly defined will start tomorrow in Toronto. The first show of two in co-promotion with New Japan Wrestling which were announced a couple of months ago. It also marks ROH’s return to I-PPV which was not kind to this company in the past. During a surge of interest in the company they had massive issues with I-PPV that caused them all kinds of problems. Wrestling fans and loyal ROH fans alike were pissed at the constant issues they had. It forced ROH to abandon the whole concept until now. They are broadcasting this time around through U-Stream and that is something that has been fairly reliable for their partners from New Japan.

I admit when the announcement of the partnership with New Japan Pro Wrestling I really didn’t understand what that meant. I consider myself a wrestling fan but it has always been based in North America. Since the announcement I have come to learn how important this company is to the hardcore wrestling fans. It is the number one company in Japan and has a load of talent some of the best of which are going to be featured on these cards in Toronto and New York. Both of which are complete sell outs.

ROH has always been fairly smart in terms of booking venues that make sense for their promotion. When you are not smart you get pictures of how empty buildings are like we have seen with TNA over the last year or so.

Consider these I-PPV’s as test runs for the main event which happens on June 22nd, 2014 as Best In The World will debut ROH on traditional PPV right in the backyard of TNA in Nashville, Tennessee. While being on Spike despite the poor ratings TNA does have some form of advantage the perception of the two companies could not be further apart. News breaking that TNA Star Kurt Angle is going to be out 4-6 months with ACL tear is just the latest TNA problem. ROH meanwhile has the most talented roster in North America outside of the WWE. The depth that ROH has in comparison to TNA is obvious which includes former TNA Poster Boy A.J Styles. He will not be part of the PPV in June in all likely hood though as he has a match booked for New Japan Pro Wrestling the day prior. 

While the WWE has tried to declare that PPV business is a dying dinosaur as the driving force for them launching the WWE Network they might be right. It isn’t dead yet though but if you look at UFC drawing only around 300 thousand buys for two of their top draws in Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones in recent PPV events. ROH is filling a wrestling void left by the WWE who have been dropped by a number of big cable providers in the U.S. They also plan to offer the option of watching still on I-PPV as well. This is a potential revenue boost for the company if everything goes according to plan.

Some of that extra revenue is already spent if ROH follows through on its promise to upgrade its look for this PPV event. One of the major knocks on ROH has been their poorly produced T.V. While ROH in the ring can hang with anyone on the planet, they look like a cable access independent wrestling show in some respects. Personally it doesn’t bother me, but for people that are use to watching WWE and TNA the difference is easy to see. It doesn’t take having a background in broadcasting to notice the differences.

Court Bauer has stated that ROH is working hard and making their look better in preparation for the Best In The World PPV. Rome wasn’t built in a day but it seems clear ROH is making a concerted effort to improve on their weaknesses.  They have a roster of talent worth of the effort and being presented in a better way.

If ROH is going to challenge TNA as the second company in North America that battle begins this weekend and will ultimately build to their PPV debut. TNA has still not renewed their T.V deal with Spike TV and if they do not this will be a very short war for who will be number two. We all have craved a competitor for WWE but that is at this point an unrealistic pipe dream. Competition for being the number one alternative to them could still be interesting.

ROH in addition to all of this has been smart in being booked in their own way and instead of being thought of as copying the WWE like TNA. They have been smart to market the fact they have produced a lot of the talent you see today in the WWE. Much like how WWE tries to market its NXT brand that has been the vain of ROH’s marketing. The difference is at least at this point ROH can claim more stars they have had than NXT has produced.

If ROH continues to take this measured approach on growth wrestling fans could finally have an alternative that they can count on. The other thing ROH has attempted to do is keep their price point low. Not as low as the 9.99 a month for the WWE Network but lower than TNA. The ROH product is appealing and different enough from WWE to be worth it for hardcore wrestling fans to check out.

How successful they can ultimately be depends on how many casual fans they can draw. I am not a casual wrestling fan but until recently I would consider myself a casual ROH fan. I am heading down to see my first ever ROH show live. If I am not alone in being that casual observer of ROH that is becoming a fan of their product, that is very good news for the people at ROH.

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.

10 People That Might Not Have Much Future Left In WWE

WWE has not made cuts from the main roster in a long time. It’s not like the WWE can’t afford to have the deepest roster of any wrestling company on the planet they can. Still with all the talent in the NXT system you would have to think looking over your shoulder might be wise at this point. Here are ten wrestlers that from the outside looking in might not be long for remaining in the WWE.

I would say JTG should be number one on this list, but at this point I see him as almost a mascot for employment in the WWE.  This list is based completely on observation and has no inside information attached too it.

#10 Great Khali: It is time for him to go for his sake and all of our sakes as well. I have seen him dance and sing enough and don’t ever want to seem him do that or have a match. What is left for him outside of that? Nothing so enjoy retirement big man.

#9 Damien Sandow: Was the X-Men costume a sign that you can’t go much lower? Sandow has been in the WWE system for a long time and is not getting younger.

#8 Jack Swagger: We gave him the boot in are game of Push, Repackage and Fire. It the real world his firing seems to be something to really be concerned about happening at this point. He has lost his more over tag-team partner in Cesaro and for the moment has Zeb. I think he could be replaced and the gimmick moves on without him.

#7 Jo Jo: She got the boot from Total Divas and supposedly is still training at NXT. But honestly in a divas’ division that is full. She failed to get attention on Total Divas and that may be her only shot in the big time.

#6 Brodus Clay: Recently demoted to NXT and had his gimmick stolen by Xavier Woods who has got nothing out of it. Clay meanwhile mixed it up with the NXT Champion. Is he doomed to go the way of Mason Ryan only faster? It seems like a realistic thing to think at this point.

#5 Yoshi Tatsu: I saw him on NXT a few weeks ago and was stunned he was still in the company. WWE really is almost to the point of like the old WCW with no real competition their roster has got to the point that you honestly forget some of the people they employ. Sadly Yohsi has become one of those guys. He never really had any significant run or chance to be anything. He just has lingered around as a very infrequent jobber. He is now doing his jobs on NXT for that roster.  His next job is not going be with WWE.

#4 Evan Bourne: I feel that Evan Bourne has become an urban legend at this point. He is always rumoured to be returning from injury. I assume he may have been healthy for years at this point. I honestly could walk by Evan Bourne on the street and not remember what he looks like.

#3 Zack Ryder: We all know the story here but let’s put everyone out of their misery and say WOO WOO GOOD BYE!

#2 Alberto Del Rio: He has had more pushes than a shopping cart on a Saturday at the local grocery store. He has faded into the abyss of the mid-card. He was booked in a match with Daniel Bryan the world champion and he was an after thought to the horror film awful storyline and lost clean and tapped out. He may want out before the WWE pushes him out.

#1 Dolph Ziggler: WWE and Dolph seem to be playing a game of chicken and I am betting on the people running the show not trying to steal it. Dolph has been told to slow down and shut his mouth. He has failed to either and remains buried at the bottom of the card. The latest blow, being eliminated from the U.S Title Battle Royal by Santino’s Cobra a new record low.  I can’t see Dolph suddenly finding God and doing what he has been asked to do for several years now.

Raw Notebook: May 6th 2014

Extreme Rules and Raw are in the books and we take a look back at some Extreme highs and lows coming out of this Special Event. We got it wrong as Daniel Bryan did in fact close the show on Extreme Rules. It was a pretty fun match that had a bit of an attitude era feel too it. That was the good news the bad news was this feud would continue on to Raw and it was terrible.

In fact not much good to say about Raw but before we get to that we need to touch on the PPV/Special Event.

Predictable comes to mind with this card but that doesn’t naturally always mean bad. The least predictable match produced the best match of this card. The Shield against Evolution was not booked as the main event but it did steal the show.  You had three established stars against 3 hungry lions and it showed in this match. It was a fantastic match that went all over the arena and features some crazy spots from Seth Rollins that we have not seen since Jeff Hardy’s days in WWE.

The feud continued on into Raw. Triple H booked Dean Ambrose into a battle royal for his U.S Title which he would lose and Sheamus would become the new U.S Champion. Triple H would come out after and announce that the Shield would face the Wyatt’s in the main event. Evolution would eventually get involved and cost them the match and go after them after the match complete with Batista delivering the triple power bomb with the help of the rest of Evolution.

Daniel Bryan on Raw was booked in a terrible horror movie angle that was briefly interrupted by a match with Alberto Del Rio. How you can book your World Champion as a coward against a performer that stopped being relevant a long time ago.

If the horror movie wasn’t your thing we had the antics of El Torito and Hornswaggle with Los Matadors and 3MB along for the ride. They had the Wee L C match at the PPV and than a Cinco De Mayo celebrations on Raw. 

In short there is a lot of campy stuff going on that isn’t exactly clicking. Speaking of campy we have a Little Wyatt named Johnny. He came out at the end of the PPV match and with a poltergeist type voice spooked John Cena into losing the match to Bray Wyatt. Many hated this finish it didn’t bother me much. Wyatt minus little Johnny cut a tremendous promo on Raw.

A PPV with thumbs in the middle and Raw with thumbs to the ground makes me roll my eyes.  It was a terrible follow up to an average PPV with really one match that kept it from being bad.

I am excited this week to go see ROH Global Wars in Toronto and independent show in Hamilton it comes at a perfect time where I am not exactly in love with the WWE at the moment.

5 Things We Need To See Coming Out Of Extreme Rules

So Extreme Rules is almost here and we are going to look ahead to after it is all said and done what we need to have coming out of this event . Every PPV or as they are calling them now special event needs to have some reason to it for us to stay invested as fans. The first major event after Wrestlemania is usually a time to start building some new feuds and ending some old ones. We always have some new stars to get over and make look good. So with all that being said let’s look at 5 things we need to see coming out of this event. After reading this go have a listen to our podcast where we preview this event and talk the news of the week in WWE.

5. A Stronger Paige: We saw Paige from NXT make her long awaited debut on the Raw after Wrestlemania winning the Diva's Championship from A.J Lee. It wasn’t the best debut for Paige to show of her ability in the ring with a bit of a screwed up finish to the match. Adding to the problems we had A.J Lee stepping away for some time off, to move to Chicago we are told, as she has become engaged to CM Punk who remains in limbo with WWE. So instead of an A.J vs. Paige feud that many have looked forward to we get an under promoted Paige vs. Tamina Snuka match. This match not only needs to see Paige win but do it impressively in order to validate her to the larger WWE audience that may not be familiar with her work in NXT. A stronger Paige and returning A.J Lee should make for a great feud.

4. A Strong NEW I-C Champion: We don’t hate Big E Langston but maybe we are not crazy about Big E. Jokes aside, it has been fairly clear that him retaining the I-C title is not going to be in the cards. We had all thought that new champion was going to be Cesaro and that might have been confirmed with a WWE Script making it’s way to the internet. Suddenly things changed and now Bad News Barrett is the man that sits on the verge of his fourth run with the I-C title. Rumours are that Vince McMahon himself has been the driving force behind the Bad News Barrett character so safe to say he has some support behind him if that is true. Much talk has been made of unification of the U.S and I-C titles. Dean Ambrose in a rare title defence for that U.S Title retained it on Smackdown. Regardless of this happens Barrett is deserving of having a long run with this title and maybe if he does the belt that once meant so much in the WWE can once again. I would feel more confident with Cesaro in this role honestly though.

3. Continuation of Steph vs. Bri: We have not seen Stephanie McMahon in a WWE ring in a match since 2003. This was just prior to her real life wedding to Triple H as she fought he father Vince in a match. The couple you love to hate in storyline have 3 lovely daughters and perhaps the time has come to see Steph get back in a ring. In the PG world of WWE when they script the word bitch into a program you notice. The woman dropping that B-Bomb was Bri who is married to Daniel Bryan of course. This is not the first time we have had a feud for Stephanie teased as she and A.J Lee had some interactions that made you wonder where it was heading. Some may cringe at the idea of this match with Bri and Stephanie taking place, but I say why not. If you’re looking for a mat classic this likely will not be it, but no one would expect it to be. In any case, the feud itself I like and would not mind seeing more fuel added to the fire coming out of Extreme Rules.

2. More Heroics from the Swiss Superman: As we mentioned there is a lot of circumstantial evidence this was not the plan for Cesaro for this show. When you get lemons you can be a rosebud or make lemonade. So, seeing as Cesaro is not likely to become an Adam Rose fan will go with the ladder option. Basically it seems in this 3 way it could go a few ways. It could serve as continuation of the Swagger vs. Cesaro break-up that has involved Paul Heyman and Zeb Colter. It also could lead to a program with RVD a former Heyman Guy and a legendary performer in wrestling. Ideally Cesaro should get the win in this match-up and draw some conclusion to his feud with Swagger. You could easily make that happen with Heyman screwing RVD and Cesaro getting the pin on Swagger. That likely makes the most sense to build Cesaro for what many are speculating could be a future feud with Brock Lesnar. Continuation of a Swagger feud is only holding Cesaro back. However it ends up Cesaro needs to shine in this match and build on the momentum his Battle Royal win and next night manger change has given him.

1. A Dominate Daniel Bryan: We need to see a strong first title defence for the new WWE World Champion. This feud needs to be one and done for Daniel Bryan as a feud with Kane despite the history with the two has not captured anyone’s imagination at this point. This is the Randy Savage on Saturday Night’s Main Event vs. One Man Gang type of title defence. The first for a new champion against a much large opponent to showcase he can beat the big guys. It is nothing more than that and why The Shield vs. Evolution is likely the main event of this show. We have Daniel Bryan entering a match selling an injury yet again which makes the chances of him looking dominate a bit less likely. However he entered the title match at Wrestlemania 30 with the same restrictions but was able to put on a great performance. The days of Daniel Bryan beat downs need to be less and he needs to establish his title reign as a strong champion. If he looks like anything different from that, it is a failure and does not speak well for his future as the reigning champion.
  

1(B) Bray Wyatt Words Need To Have Action: So you thought we forgot about Bray? Not at all and following Bray Wyatt's example, we will not conform and giving you 6 things in a list that is only suppose to be 5. It is important that Bray Wyatt comes out of this event not being all talk and no action. He needs to win this match or have some validation for what he has been saying. Ideally we get both to happen in his match with John Cena. This is a much better version of the feud between John Cena and Kane, that was used to fill in the gaps for Cena as he prepared for his first encounter with The Rock. Bray Wyatt just like Kane wants to expose a darker side to John Cena that he claims exists. John Cena is showing some doubt on if the fans are really behind him on this one and that is already a partial victory for Bray in comparison to the Kane vs. Cena feud. If Bray fails to get a win the only way this feud to continue with any kind of logic is if Cena some how cheats to win. Given this is a steel cage match with no real room for that to happen logically Bray needs to win. Bray may not care about his win/loss record but for the fans to believe in him they need him to win. This feud has elevated Bray to being in the conversation as one of the best talkers in the WWE. Part of being a great talker is being able to take those words and turn them into action and that time is now for Bray Wyatt.

So why do we not see any mention of The Shield and Evolution? Reason for this is basically because you could have a number of acceptable outcomes to this one, without one standing out as better than another. I think regardless of who wins this feud is not finished and thus the result here is only this first step in a much larger war. It is not to say it won’t be potentially fantastic and a great match. It very well should be that. It is just that nothing NEEDS to happen here to any degree. No one in this match will be hurt by a loss and no one gains a ton from a win at this stage if this program continues on as expected.