BEARcast - WrestleCast 06/08/2016

BEARcast - WrestleCast 2016-06-08 with Fred "The Oracle"

After a busy few weeks the BearCast is back.  Fred and I catch up on all the latest in the WWE, including a look towards Money in the Bank.  We also touch on the death of Muhammed Ali and the current NBA playoffs.  Enjoy.

Please check us out at www.worldofbear.com and on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/world-of-bear/id828777439?mt=2 and don't forget to Subscribe!  Also, don't forget to spread the word to friends, family and fans.

Thanks,
WK
@wkbear on Twitter or email the show at WorldOfBearBC@gmail.com to send in ideas and comments.

BEARcast - WrestleCast 06/17/2015

BEARcast - WrestleCast 2015-06-17 with Fred "The Oracle"

With five weeks until the next PPV, the WrestleCast has time to stretch it’s legs and argue over Cena, Owens, Ryback, Lebron, Kobe and horrible white rappers.  Oh yeah, we talk Money in the Bank results as well.

Please check us out at www.worldofbear.com and on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/world-of-bear/id828777439?mt=2 and don't forget to Subscribe!  Also, don't forget to spread the word to friends, family and fans.

Thanks,
WK
@wkbear on Twitter or email the show at WorldOfBearBC@gmail.com to send in ideas and comments.
Contact Fred on Twitter @FreddyD15

BEARcast - WrestleCast 06/10/2015

BEARcast - WrestleCast 2015-06-10 with Fred "The Oracle"

Three “go home shows” in one month is asking a lot from the WWE.  Fear not, as Fred and I get you set for this weekend’s Money in the Bank PPV.  The WrestleCast breaks down RAW and gives you better fantasy bookings than what will transpire on the actual show.

Please check us out at www.worldofbear.com and on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/world-of-bear/id828777439?mt=2 and don't forget to Subscribe!  Also, don't forget to spread the word to friends, family and fans.

Thanks,
WK
@wkbear on Twitter or email the show at WorldOfBearBC@gmail.com to send in ideas and comments.
Contact Fred on Twitter @FreddyD15

Is John Cena “selling” Too Much?

The hardest part of learning to be a star in the wrestling business is to accept that sometimes it’s best, for all parties, if you lose.  All of these performers, be it male or female, were raised with a sporting background.  In sports, even if your sport is body building, your goal is to be the best.  To be better than the man or woman standing next to you.  Be at the top of your game.  So now, after dedicating all these years to winning, you’re supposed to lose?

As Fast Eddie told Vince… “And you are going to dump.  You are going to lose something fierce.  You’ll ask for the spot and the break.  It’ll be humiliating.  This is beautiful.”  The art of the hustle.  The REAL hustle, not the one that John Cena preaches.  This is the art that HHH and the McMahon family preaches.  

The best wrestlers of all time have been the wrestlers that can lose in the most glorious fashion.  It’s not even hard to think of an example.  Take the Undertaker.  He had the longest, never to be repeated, WrestleMania win streak of all time.  21-0.  Twenty-one wins versus Zero losses!  Let’s not bother picking the record apart, let’s just look at the entirety of it.  For 21 years, the Undertaker was victorious and was the star of his match on the biggest night of the year, in his profession.  What We’ll remember the most is not the 21 wins, it will be the ONE loss two years ago against Brock Lesnar.  

The saying that is used in the wrestling world is, “You go out on your back.”  If you’re lucky enough to have your career mean anything in the wrestling business, the way you pay the sport / industry back is to “pay it forward” to the next generation.  Brock Lesnar will use that win until it is time for him to “pay it forward.”

John Cena is nowhere near retirement but he is the Face of the WWE.  His job is secure.  In the upcoming years, he’ll have an epic run for this 16th and 17th WHC run, which will push him past Ric Flair.  The mission to “conquer” the WWE is no longer his goal.  Now it’s all about “ruling.”  If we’ve learned anything from history (and Game of Thrones), it is much different to Conquer than to Rule.   

Now that John Cena is sitting on the Iron Throne of the WWE, he’s tasked with elevating his fellow performer.  In the last few years, he’s actually done a very admirable job at doing this.  He’s openly challenged the guys backstage and has helped raise the profiles of Bray Wyatt, Dolph Ziggler and most notably Daniel Bryan.  But with his recent run with Kevin Owens, has he gone too far?

This is not a knock on KO.  After what I saw Owens do to / with Cena at Elimination Chamber, he’s exceeded and surpassed all expectations.  He’s stomped on the idea that he’s BamBam 2.0 and has written his name on a ticket to possibly headline WrestleMania in 2-4 years.  That’s how good he is AND a testament to how well Cena put him over.  

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Cena has been “selling” too much.  It was great that he helped friend and worthy struggling star Daniel Bryan.  But then he kept putting over more and more guys.  Sure, he’d eventually get the decisive victory but there was a lot of losing going on up until then.  His biggest sell job was putting over Brock Lesnar.  Nothing against the BEAST but look at what’s made him the number one draw this past year, he broke Undertaker’s WM streak and totally demolished John Cena numerous times.  

With Lesnar and Bryan, I can understand the sell.  But over the past few years, and especially since he won the U.S. Championship title, he’s been putting over every Tom, Dick and Harry on the roster.  We’re only in June, and I can see this going on through SummerSlam.  What I do not see is another WrestleMania season in which Cena is sitting on the sidelines and not having a spot in one of the main event matches with no end in sight.  While putting over deserving mid-carders is a noble occupation, if Cena continues to be the U.S. Champ, he’ll just be seen as a stepping stone for every new wrestler that comes up from NXT.  To have a chance at one of the top matches next year, he’ll need to have another long feud similar to the one he had with Rusev by WM32.  I’d say, this feud with Kevin Owens would be perfect but we can see that run ending with a Cena victory at Money in the Bank.  

Might it be that Kevin Owens out performed expectations?  After their feud is over, where do both go?  Cena back to his weekly Cena Open?  Kevin Owens dropping back down to NXT just to give up the title so he can be free to return to the main roster?

I’d never leave you all without any solutions.  Here’s what Cena does.  He must double down on the losing and the putting over of the new crop of Superstars.  The WWE must have a big reward for Cena but their main event card looks to be filled through next year’s WrestleMania.  As his reward, and after WM32, 2016 will be the Year of John Cena!  Two-thousand-16 to correlate with his 16th run at being the WHC.  Early bets are that Reigns will walk away from WM32 as the WHC and maybe a bit of a heel.  It would fit and be time for Super Cena to swoop in and save the WWE and take over as the all time winningest World Heavyweight Champion.

I may never join in with all the cheering kids screaming, “Let’s go CE-NA!”  But I hold the right to silently stand nodding with respect for a man who’s learned what it means to be a true Legend and the Face of the WWE.  

Check out the BEARcast - WrestleCast:

www.worldofbear.com

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/world-of-bear/id828777439?mt=2

Thanks,

WK

@wkbear

BEARcast - WrestleCast 7/02/2014

BEARcast - WrestleCast 2014-07-02 with Fred "The Oracle"

A super fun, really good RAW deserved a longer than normal BEARcast - WrestleCast.  Fred and I discuss all that was Money in the Bank and one of the best RAW’s of the year.  There’s nothing like title changes, good matches, great shoots and returning SuperStars to make an A+ show!

Please check us out at www.worldofbear.com and on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/world-of-bear/id828777439?mt=2 and don't forget to Subscribe!  Also, don't forget to spread the word to friends, family and fans.

Thanks,
WK
@wkbear on Twitter or email the show at WorldOfBearBC@gmail.com to send in ideas and comments.
Contact Fred on Twitter @FreddyD15
Contact Dustin on Twitter @Peabody3030

WWE Power Rankings, RAW 6/30/2014

Coming at you from Hartford, and one of the beauties of the WWE is how they can surprise you when you least expect it.  It seemed like just days ago I was complaining about the WWE creative staff.  While I still won’t give them a complete pass nor forget the pass messes we’ve had to suffer through, Monday’s RAW was a great show.  Surprising because MitB came in slightly below high expectations.  

Money in the Bank was a good PPV.  My time is short this week, therefore I won’t pontificate on the previous debacles that has led up to the current moments in the WWE.  In short, MitB got a B-plus.  As predicted, the Traditional MitB match was the Best of Show.  While the WWE did a horrible job promoting the MitB card, by the end of the night it was packed and they barely fit the show into their three hour window (which makes no sense now considering the majority of us are watching the show on the Network so they could go as long as they want / need to).

While my time for the rankings is short this week, check out the BEARcast - WrestleCast (visit www.worldofbear.com or subscribe on iTunes) for a full show and breakdown of MitB and a great RAW.

The worst kept secret was that Cena was, and did, win the WHC match.  This just proves you can aways trust an Amazon advertising leak to be the most reliable source of WWE info, unlike constant internet rumors concerning AJ Lee’s pregnancy and need for time off.

It was a great hometown crowd for the WWE.  They were on fire which only added to the fantastic lineup and well executed show.  47 minutes into the show, I was saying to myself, “Am I really on SuperCena’s side and cheering for Jack Swagger w/ Zeb and missing Vickie Guerrero?”  I had to check outside to see if the apocalypse was upon us.

Because the show was so good, and I’m the HHH of this shit, we’re going top 21 this week!

So with that, let’s get to the rankings as of this week’s RAW on 6/30/2014…

1. HHH and Stephanie McMahon (2&14) – Stephanie getting a B-plus in a nice rayon pantsuit.  It takes a special type of performer to spit hot fire and shoot her own hometown.  As far as mic workers, there’s Heyman, Stephanie, then a third tier of the HHH’s / Cena’s / Sandow’s and then everybody else.  I loved Stephanie dancing to Cena’s music.  HHH showed his own quality when battling Thug-a-nomic Cena on the mic, let’s not forget to give him his due.  I equate what HHH and Stephanie are doing to the Donald Sterling Clippers the last two years.  You love the players but are faced with heel owner(s) that are only looking out for what’s Best for Business.  Great job by both of them throughout the night.
   
2. John Cena (5) – I can’t believe I’m saying this but this current iteration of Cena services the mark fans that boo him and the regular fans that cheer him.  This might be the closest thing to a Cena heel turn that we get.  He’s the champ for a hands-on heel owner.  He can stay face but while he holds the belts and The Authority supports him, Cena inadvertently becomes heel.  This is all just a hollow championship feel if rumors are to be believed that Brock Lesnar will be Cena’s opponent at SummerSlam.  As we discussed on last week’s BEARcast - WrestleCast (www.worldofbear.com) Lesnar is beating whomever he fights next.  In the meantime, Battleground will feature Cena vs RKO (greatness but not getting the belt anytime soon) / Kane (who cares) / Reigns (wildcard but probably too soon to win).  Early prediction is Cena retains the title, The Authority strikes a deal with Heyman and Brock comes in to take the WHC away from Cena.  Having said all this, Cena had to push things too far by diving feet first into the “pool of crap” nonsense.  You couldn’t just walked away with the victory?  You lost me at the last moment.  That’s Cena for you.
   
3. RKO / KANE / REIGNS (5) – AKA the other contestants next month’s fatal-4-way.  Everyone forgets how badass RKO is.  He has staples in his head and was BUSTED open at MitB.  Is Reigns’ shooting star getting snuffed out by being thrown in the WHC mix?  Rollins and Ambrose are off to a great feud while Reigns is just in the mix at the top with no direction.  Maybe a feud with RKO will work?  HHH and Kane set up to take out Cena for Rollins was great and it served Rollins’ feud and will pay off with Cena in the upcoming weeks.  The only negative I had was the crowd give a “This is awesome” for the Reigns / HHH standoff.  REALLY?  Pump the breaks.  That might be taking things a little too far.  I am interested in what HHH has in store.  I was set for HHH to give Reigns the MitB case at the end as his Plan B but I’m pretty confident that his next Plan B stands for BROCK Lesnar.  
   
4. Seth Rollins (6) – Rollins is now if full X-men gear and I suspect his alter ego name is Plan B aka The Abortion.  Clearly Rollins wasn’t performing at 100% but was understandable after participating in the best match of the night on Sunday, the traditional MitB match.  Surprisingly RVD and Rollins put on a solid match after they got warmed up.  Even though the camera caught some talk between the two, Rollins’ leg whip in the ropes was tight.  Rollins even put in work with a good shoot after the match.  It would have been great to have Rollins win the WHC but I’d rather have this Rollins / Ambrose feud.
   
5. Dean Ambrose (8) – “From one scumbag to another,” should be the title to their feud.  Nice shoot.  There’s not another current feud I’m more excited for than Rollins vs Ambrose.  And the however Reigns is dropped in doesn’t matter because it could work both ways.
   
6. Bray and The Wyatt Family (5&10) – Absolutely destroying their entrances with help of willing crowds.  It was so fun to hear that the “Let’s go Usos" vs “Let’s go Wyatts" has the same decibel change at the split Cena chants.  Harper finished off an Uso with a devastating clothesline.  If that was all the Wyatt Family did, it would have been fine but then they showed up to take out a return Y2J setting up a possible Bray / Jericho feud?  I’d have to say I’m excited with any direction the Wyatts go in right now.
7. Sheamus and The Usos (9) – With the way Sheamus has been on fire of late and with the emergence of Rowan and Harper, this 6-man tag was great.  Sheamus is on fire.  A month ago, a Sheamus vs Wyatt would have felt like a huge demotion for Bray but now it seems like they’re a good match.  Little did we know that a returning superstar would / will be an even better opponent for Bray which puts Sheamus on a bit of an island.  The biggest surprise of MitB was that The Usos retained their titles.  It still remains to be seen how long that lasts.
8. Cesaro w/ Heyman (5) – Heyman = greatness.  (See, I told you I was in a rush.)  You’ll not find a better Hugh Hefner-esque robe nor a better catch into a backbreaker move that what Cesaro sported on RAW.  Fantastic match with Kofi.  If Cesaro isn’t in the mix for WHC then I’d assume he’s got to be the favorite for Barrett’s vacant IC belt.
   
9. Kofi Kingston (17) – Philosophical question: If Kofi only does two or three amazing spots in a MitB match but sits on the sideline for 90% of the time, is he a wrestler or a glorified stuntman?  This isn’t to take away from Kofi, it’s just a question of usage.  I’d give up a few mind-blowing stunts if it meant that Kofi can put on more matches like he did with Cesaro.  During the MitB match, Kofi was offscreen so long that I though he was making an exoskeleton out of ladders and was going to then “Ripley from Aliens” take everyone out.  Make fun of me but that’s more plausible than Kofi winning a match of any consequence.  
10. Rob Van Damn (7) – RVD vs Rollins would have been a great headliner for ECW back in the day.  The two put on a great opening match.  It’s great to see RVD back putting on solid matches, even if it’s only to put over the young up and comers.
    
     
11. Jack Swagger w/ Zeb (18) – “If it’d been a snake, it would have bit me.”  Right in front of our face was sitting the perfect feud with the perfect managers and two very capable wrestlers and NO ONE saw it coming.  In one night, Swagger and Zeb became instant crowd favorites.  Give credit to an admirable heel persona for Rusev which allowed Swagger and Zeb to step in and finally act like Real Americans.  Sure, once this is over, they’ll go back to the semi-racist / underachieving duo (who need’s a third leg to the Real American gimmick) but for now, I’m super pumped for a little Rusev vs Swagger feud in-ring and a Lana vs Zeb feud on mic.  Add in a minimalistic cool t-shirt, I might have to be a Swagger fan for the next few weeks.
    
12. Rusev and Lana (15) – Can we keep someone’s full name for at least a year until we know their character is going to catch on?  Rusev not only migrated to Russia but also dropped his name.  It’s one thing for Cena or RKO or HHH to go by one name or an acronym.  Even the Zigglers, Cesaros and Barretts have put in enough time to go by one name (which they don’t exclusively).  I can’t sign off on the Big E and Rusev’s of the world going by the singular name when I barely know them.  Maybe I’m being too picky.  I’ll shut up and allow myself to be distracted by the ample breast action going on with Lana this week.  It’s was like a Carl’s Jr. commercial for their super-mega-chicken-breast-sandwich.  I got my Big E vs Rusev match at MitB.  It was good, not great.  I’m not feeling the hammerlock.  I’m sorry, when all you have to do is slip your arms out to get free, I can’t suspend reality that this move is so devastating instead of the opponent just being incompetent.  Maybe one of the biggest shocks of the night, on a night filled with surprises and returns, was that I instantly loved the Rusev / Swagger feud.  Let’s see where this goes! 
    
13. The Dust Brothers (11) – Only the greatest tag team ever!  Ryb-Axel should be grateful that they’re allowed to job to Goldust and Stardust.  I love seeing Stardust’s little legs running back and forth during the match.  I wish I had the time, I would write poetry about these two.  I love it!!!!
    
14. Dolph Ziggler (4) – If he’s gotta start with Fandango to get the push he needs, so be it.  He got to make out with Summer and get the win.  Not a bad night.  My only concern is that Ziggler falls in with this Fandango / Summer / Layla feud.  Hopefully as friend of the BEARcast - WrestleCast (www.worldofbear.com or on iTunes) texted me, Ziggler is his pick for the next IC champ.
    
15. AJ Lee (N/A) – She’s back and rumors of her being preggers were slightly exaggerated.  In fact the time off looks like she’s done her good.  She looks GREAT.  CM Punk must have her on his strict vegan diet.  The ultimate move would be fore Punk to come back only as her manager.  Tease the crowd for a year would be a total Punk move.  He’s a Chicago kid and is doing his best Jordan ’93 bit.  He’ll eventually return to in-ring work.  No one fights in the indies and up through the ranks to become WWE champ and just quits in their mid 30’s.  Let him be not just a great heel manager but terrorize the fans with the possibilities of his return and only showing up during Diva functions.  
    
16. Paige (HM) – She wasn’t joking about being a woman of few words.  Hey, she’s 21.  Give her a break.  I can’t complain about the silly way she dropped the belt back to AJ since Paige got the Divas Championship in the same silly fashion.  I guess “your house” only lasts as long as AJ allows it?  Finally some character development to Paige.  If she goes off the deep end and get’s vengeful and obsessed at beating AJ to regain the title, that could be awesome.  
17. Chris Jericho (N/A) – Y2J has returned.  The Ayatollah-of-Rock-n-Rolla is back!  I run hot and cold with Y2J but it’s always fun when he comes back (and back and back and back and back).  He’s the king of returns, so much so that they should name him Costco - BANG, you don’t get comedy like that anywhere else folks.  How long is Jericho back?  Who knows?  But when the Wyatts came out, I dumped the Sheamus / Bray idea like the Chicago Bulls dumping Boozer to sign Melo.  Bray vs Y2J is a perfect feud for both men.  Well played WWE.
18. The Miz (N/A) – If I didn’t secretly love The Miz, I’d be annoyed by his constant disappearances and below average matches and forgettable feuds.  But then he comes back and give a great shoot and is such a good prick.  Being married to Maryse doesn’t hurt him at all.  There’s an alternate reality where the Miz is still working MTV Challenges and CT is staring in the Marine 4 and fighting his way back up the WWE ranks.  BTW, if you’ve seen The Challenge lately, the only question I have is; Why hasn’t the WWE signed CT to be The Miz’s bodyguard?
    
19. Bo Dallas (12) – 60 seconds of silence.  Just wait until it’s 480 seconds of silence and it lasts a whole segment.  Then the heel push will be complete.  Hell, the WWE has wasted 8 minutes on dumber ideas.  Again, my fear is how long and far can he push this.  Who’s Bo’s next real opponent or feud going to be with? 
    
20. Mr. McMahon-dow aka Damien Sandow (13) – He does it again!  Sunday night it was Paul Revere and on Monday, the most powerful man in Connecticut.  The masses ARE to ignorant to appreciate Sandow!  The only question is where do you hide a 7 foot tall Khali?  I guess Big Show was too tired from his massive workload of late?
    
21. Divas match: N-Bella vs Funkadactyls (Cameron and Naomi) (20) – All good things must come to an end.  We had a great opening segment and two excellent matches but then the crap end of the Divas spectrum had to rear its reality show head.  Naomi’s got talent and hopefully this break will allow her to do work with the AJ / Paige end of the Divas spectrum.  

Honorable Mentions

Wade Barrett – This poor bastard can’t stay healthy.  Just as he was getting a huge push and taking off in and out of the ring with his #BadNewsBarrett gimmick.  Goes to show, the idea that they can’t give Ziggler a push because he’s injury prone is the same risk with all the wrestlers and any of them can get hurt.  Barrett got hurt on a simple throw against the wall.  Shit happens in this business.  You can’t book on fear.  Barrett and Bryan get hurt and life will go on even if the transition of the belt is sloppy.

Fandango w/ Layla – Really, what’s going on here?  Weren’t we over with this at MitB?

SAN-TIN-OOOOOOO and Adam Rose – doing a live plug for an alcoholic beverage?  On a PG show?  Iced-T with a kick and no mention of alcohol?  The behind the scenes on this is way more fascinating to me.  I guess they feel if the major sports leagues can have alcoholic sponsors, so can they?  I assume this “hard” lemonade and iced-T they’re pushing is like Zima.  For all you kids out there, Zima was 7-up with alcohol.  It’s what turned me into the degenerate you see before you.  

Michael Cole – Monday’s RAW was so crazy even Cole got injured.  What’s going on this week?

Until next time…

BEARcast - WrestleCast 6/25/2014

BEARcast - WrestleCast 2014-06-25 with Fred "The Oracle" and joined by special guest Dustin

An Oracle, a BEAR and a Doc-ta walk into a bar and talk Money in the Bank!  In this week’s BEARcast - WrestleCast Fred and I cover EVERYTHING from RAW, the lead up to Sunday’s PPV and our MitB predictions.  With a special guest appearance from Dustin.

Please check us out at www.worldofbear.com and on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/world-of-bear/id828777439?mt=2 and don't forget to Subscribe!  Also, don't forget to spread the word to friends, family and fans. 

Thanks,
WK
@wkbear on Twitter or email the show at WorldOfBearBC@gmail.com to send in ideas and comments.
Contact Fred on Twitter @FreddyD15
Contact Dustin on Twitter @Peabody3030

WWE Power Rankings, RAW 6/23/3014

Coming at you from Washington DC, and we are just days away from one of the more exciting and consistently good PPV, Money in the Bank.  The good news is that this Sunday we’re almost assured a new WHC in one MitB match and hopefully another memorable “regular” MitB match.  The bad news is trying to understand the story lines leading up to this PPV might just get you committed to a mental hospital or at the very least held on a 51-50.  Not even with HHH sitting next to you explaining everything on RAW, which was essentially what his segment was, would you understand what’s going on.

Check out this week’s BEARcast - WrestleCast podcast where we’ll breakdown everything leading up to Money in the Bank.  Check out www.worldofbear.com or subscribe on iTunes to listen to the show which will be up later this week.  After weeks of complaining that this PPV hasn’t been set up properly, at least we know three of the matches at Money in the Bank.  Two MitB-style matches and a Tag Team Championship match.  The rest only god and the McMahons know. 

Special thanks to my brother-in-law Chris who was at the show and shared all the in-house crowd moments and dark spots not seen on TV.  I felt bad for Chris because he didn’t get to experience the endless bombardment that this was episode #1100.  Look, I get that the WWE takes great pride in producing a new show each week.  I love it too.  Every week I’m comforted with the knowledge that no matter what, we get a new episode of RAW.  But can we make a deal that we only celebrate milestones every 500 shows?  The WWE must realize that if they’re going to pat themselves on the back every 100 shows, then they’re going to be doing this just shy of every two years?  Oh, I’m sorry.  I forgot who I was talking about.  If they felt they could get away with it, we’d be celebrating every 10th episode.  Silly me.  

Let’s not waste anymore time.  There was a lot of good, bad and ugly.  The one thing that stuck out was that this week felt more like a 90’s era RAW than anything we’ve seen in the past few years.  I can’t wait to get Fred’s take on this week’s WrestleCast (found at www.worldofbear.com) because last week he was so frustrated with the show he was threatening to take a hiatus from watching RAW (BTW, between you and me, this would never happen.  On his wall is a picture of his wedding and next to it is a picture of Bret Hart.  He’s not missing RAW, we just have to let him vent!)

Lastly, don’t think I’ve abandoned by quadrennial love and obsession with Soccer.  I’m still in a fragile state from Sunday night’s tie.  As I put it to my soccer loving friend yesterday, one must be a sadist to watch “Football”.  The whole game feels like a 90-minute version of sudden death overtime in Hockey, which only gets worse if your team advances to the final round of 16.  Even with the devastation of a tie (yes a TIE) we now have to go on to face one of, if not the, best teams in the world.  Luckily if they bring the brätwurst and we bring the beer, we could have a 90-minute picnic and both move on to the next round.  What a sport?  This is why I stick to the scripted stuff.  It’s much safer for my emotions.  Side note: I wonder if Costco allow me to return my TV which won’t work due to a remote sized hole in the screen?  I think it came that way…

So with that, let’s get to the rankings as of this week’s RAW on 6/23/2014…

1. Vickie Guerrero (HM) – Vickie is a performer whom I have tremendous respect for.  I always felt like she was thrown into the spotlight, possibly more willingly than originally suspected, to support herself and her family after the death of Eddie Guerrero.  She never had the looks of a Diva or the skills of a Diva or the youth of a WWE Diva.  Those are facts.  But Vickie outlasted almost every Diva in the WWE.  Sure, do I joke that Vickie knows where the dead bodies (secrets) are that the WWE doesn’t want out and they gave her the opportunity to be employed for the past decade?  Yes and I still find it darkly funny.  But Vickie held her own and created a spot for herself.  We constantly see wrestlers (male and female) complain about not getting chances or the WWE burying them or a million reasons why they didn’t succeed.  For every one of them, I give you Vickie Guerrero.  She had the deck stacked against her in almost every way but she succeeded and shined in a very harsh and cold business.  When she comes back (they always do), I can’t wait to hear that, “Excuse ME!!!!” one more time.
   
2. Stephanie McMahon (10) – Of course the night that Stephanie gets an A-minus from the WWE fashion expert, is the same night she ends up in the mud and gunk of a “crap / vomit match”.  This is one of those times where it proves that the McMahon family isn’t just in this business for the money.  Whether it’s Vince getting an enema from Stone Cold, Shane launching himself off 20+ foot high scaffolding or Stephanie tossing around in the mud, how many heads of billion dollar companies would subject themselves to humiliation and / or injury like the McMahons do?  Clearly they enjoy it.  It was obvious that Stephanie was enjoying herself out there which only sells it better and allows the hardcore fan, such as me and my ilk, to give the McMahons a pass on silly stuff like this.  Having said that, a WWE retirement party wouldn’t be complete without the proper amount of real life shots.  I know Eddie has been dead for 8-9 years and Vickie is over the initial heartache from his death but those where some fairly big bullets coming out of Stephanie’s mouth.  You gotta think that Eddie did a spin or two in his grave over some of the comments Stephanie made?  Again, I’d be surprised if Vickie didn’t OK everything Stephanie said.  That being said, I’ve had to hire and fire people before and I only wish those decisions could be made via a one-on-one match for firing and a MitB match for hirings.  I don’t know where OSHA stands on such practices but I want to see more Ladder Matches to see who gets to work the register at McDonald’s.  
   
   
   
   
3. #BadNewsBarrett (7) – Had the “Match of the Night” with Ziggler.  You can’t say Barrett is getting buried because he is the IC champ but doesn’t it feel like he’s getting buried?  He’s not in the WHC MitB match (which Sheamus is in, a fellow mid-card belt holder), he’s not a favorite for winning the traditional MitB match and he’s not really in a feud with anyone.  If you’re a glass half full person, you can say that he’s probably closest to being in a feud with Ziggler and that the last two matches they’ve had were great.  He’s got the right amount of heat as a heel but also enough support from the fans that he’s extremely hot and a good push will put him in that top tier.  Fred and I discussed this last week on the BEARcast - WrestleCast (www.worldofbear.com) where like The Royal Rumble, characters go in without direction because the main even at the PPV is a bit of a mashup but coming out he’s poised to go on a great run which can easily start with some sort of incident at MitB.  
   
4. Dolph Ziggler (2) – Ziggler is back from Hollywood FL (instead of Cleveland).  Hey, if LeBron can switch from OH to FL as home states, why can’t Ziggler.  Chris, my BiL (we’ll have to get him a better nickname), said this was a great match live.  Not shocking.  What was shocking is that Ziggler might finally be getting out of the doghouse.  HHH specifically mentioned that Us fans “think” that the WWE / HHH do not like him.  Also, Lawler seems to finally be okay with joking about the heart attack elbows on a weekly basis.  As a longtime watcher of wrestling, this tells me that if they’re talking about backstage issues on TV, then it’s not a big deal anymore.  You know you’re in trouble when the WWE doesn’t address rumors.  As with Barrett, maybe these two don’t have anything seriously going on now but coming out of MitB I’d love to see them in a massive feud for the IC belt.  I just don’t know how many teeth Ziggler will have left at the end.  I hope that was gum flying out of Ziggler’s mouth when Barrett cracked him!
5. Main Event: Bray / ADR / RKO / Cesaro vs Cena / Sheamus / Reigns (various) – As Face vs Heel matches go, this is a pretty good one.  If this is the top tier of wrestlers (and you throw Bryan in with the Faces) that’s a quality set of 8 competitors.  Hot main event before a PPV, where everyone gets their moves in.  Semi shock that Sheamus got the win.   AAAAAnd then Kane has to come out.  I don’t know why?  Instead of The Demon, Kane’s nickname should be The Lost One.  He’s constantly being thrown into matches for no reason.  Sure, I suppose if you’re going to add Ambrose to the other MitB match, you can add Kane to the WHC match.  What does it matter, he’s not winning.  With Reigns getting the last word, is he in the driver’s seat to be the new champ?  My guess for winner of the WHC match is Reigns or Cesaro.  Book it.
   
   
   
   
6. Seth Rollins (3) – Last week he got his own theme music and this week he’s got new gear.  Since it seems like RAW was a throwback to the 90’s, it was only appropriate to think that Rollins was dress as one of the other guys in Nine Inch Nails.  That or he was an extra from the movie 9mm, a classic Nic Cage vehicle.  Even his feud for the night with RVD was very late 90’s / early 00’s.  Although Rollins said a wrestler’s famous last words, “I got this!”  You have to rank that with “What could go wrong?” or “We’ll have enough gas to make it.” as shit you don’t want to say out loud in a movie, TV show or real life.  These are life lessons people, and I’m just giving them to you for free.  You’re welcome.  
   
7. Rob Van Dam (N/A) – Great shoot.  Best RVD shoot in years.  RVD!  RVD!  RVD!  It only took 2 months for him to get back in shape.  Now that he is, his matches have been solid and he should be exciting to watch in the MitB match.  There’s no chance he’s winning but as I’ve mentioned, all the athletic talent is in this second MitB match.  I hope I’m not getting my hopes too high but RVD, Kofi, Rollins and Ambrose alone would make an awesome Ladder Match.  
   
8. Dean Ambrose (4) – The Wyatt boys weren’t the only ones to get new music, Ambrose got his own new theme at RAW too.  The only problem is that both Ambrose and Rollins’ themes sound very generic and so similar to The Shield music.  I guess Reigns got The Shield music in the divorce.  I was shocked when HHH failed to mention Ambrose as part of the second MitB match.  But I forgot, this is wrestling and if you want your 7-man match to be an 8-man match, just snap your fingers and it will become reality.  This isn’t a real sporting organizetion like FIFA where the members can be bribed and soccer matches can be “fixed” for gamblers.  All this talk of Ambrose being the “wild card” and hubris is always punished, has me thinking that Ambrose will somehow take the victory from Rollins.  Ambrose is my favorite to win the traditional MitB match.  
   
9. The Usos (9) – No tag team reminds me of a generic 90’s wrestling duo quite like The Usos.  Their characters are so flat and boring, thank god they are great wrestlers.  Rowan and Harper are terrific opponents for The Usos, much better than Ryb-Axel.  Heroes are only as good as their Villains (i.e. Batman is better than Superman) and Rowan and Harper have already made the Usos more dynamic in just the few weeks that they’ve faced off.  Based off the their last few matches, I’d have given them a chance to have the match of the night at any other PPV than MitB.  I still expect them to have a tremendous match at the PPV.
10. Harper and Rowan aka The Wyatt Family (6) – Get used to seeing these two holding those championship belts because I predict they’ll be wearing them officially by next Monday night.  With their weird moonshine version of “He’s got the whole world in his hands” the Wyatt’s are taking over.  Some people, aka Fred “The Oracle”, speculate that Bray is a favorite to win the WHC match and we could very easily see the entire Wyatt family sporting gold.  
    
11. Goldust and Stardust (1) – Add this to my 90’s retro night theory.  It’s too bad they didn’t get to wrestle but David Bowie-esque version of When You Wish Upon A Star, that’s all I need.  Again, no mention of this gift-from-the-wrestling-gods duo’s role at MitB but let’s assume they’re fighting Ryb-Axel or possibly interfere with the Tag Championship match.  It doesn’t matter.  I love it.  Now all we need is Dusty to dawn a black suit and be EclipseDust.  I’ll reiterate from last week, it’s just fucking fun!  Give me more.
    
    
    
    
12. Bo Dallas (N/A) – Oh, how I want to know how he got that shiner?  Was it a mistake during a match or does someone not know how to listen and “ran into a door” or “slipped down the stairs” like my girlfriend keeps doing?  Maybe it’s a sign of solidarity with real life Captain America - Clint Dempsey?  Regardless, he’s 9-and-BO!  The streak continues.  Bo Dallas is hitting on all cylinders.  I know mark fans seem to love the character but I wonder if the average / younger fan gets the gimmick.  I hope he’s able to carry this a bit longer.  The problem is that history has shown these types of ironically positive characters can’t last past an IC or US championship run, except for Kurt Angle.  Can Bo Dallas be the next Kurt Angle?  That’s a lot to ask.  Also, is it too much to ask if he’s going to have a match at the PPV?  
    
13. D-Abe-ien Sandow Lincoln (15) – Finally, some quality to this show!  He's pulling the city to city heel whistle-stop tour that 3MB should have done before they became 1MB last week.  I know it can’t last forever but like Stardust and Goldust, Sandow is fun AND he can wrestle when need be.  I’m not ready to demand a Sandow push like I am for Ziggler but I wouldn’t be against it.
    
14. HHH (10) – The Money in the Bank PPV has been so poorly promoted that HHH literally had to come out and clearly explain that there was indeed TWO MitB matches; one for the WHC and the other for the traditional MitB case.  Because everything has been throw together, there was no better way to announce the contestants than to just rattle off their names.  And who is in the traditional MitB match?  Well… just about everyone else on the second tier.  Has the run-up to MitB been a mess, yes.  Will it matter if the show is good, no.  The promotion of this PPV has been horrible but if we get a solid WHC match crowning a new champ and an exciting traditional MitB match (which with the talent that is in the match should be easy) no one is going to remember what a clusterfuck the last month of the WWE story telling has been. 
    
    
    
    
15. Rusev and Lana (16) – DC road trip for the Kremlin’s favorite couple.  I loved the background folk, especially the black guy with the beer-belly, wandering around during their film-shoot in front of Congress.  The production could not have consisted of more than just Rusev, Lana, a cameraman and maybe a writer / producer.  Imagine tourists walking by listening to these two rip America in what would look like a homemade terrorist movie shoot.  I can’t help but think, as soon as they were done, they had to quickly drop the fake accents and explain that they’re with the WWE and this is all just a joke. 
    
16. Big E (N/A) – Big E needs a rematch against Rusev.  They need to feud.  Their match was surprisingly one of the better matches from the last PPV but then there was no followup.  Besides, we need someone to come out as America’s savior.  I don’t know if he needed to go all Reverend Brown from Coming to America on us but whatever.  As long as we get the Rusev vs Big E match, I’m happy.  By the way, another assumption because god forbid they let us know if this match is on the MitB card?  
    
17. Kofi Kingston (N/A) – Who cares.  I can’t wait to see what Kofi pulls off at MitB.  Too bad he’s not winning it.
18. Swagger w/ Zeb (N/A) – Who cares, part 2.  
19. Titus O’Neil (N/A) – I’m not surprised that a semi-talented wrestler is jobbing to all the newbies but I’m a bit shocked that it’s Titus doing the jobbin’.  First to Adam Rose and now to Bo Dallas.  For sure it was going to be yet another punishment for Ziggler to have to suffer through but Titus is different.  He was the one that should be getting the push.  Does this mean the WWE thinks highly enough of Titus to have him sell his looses to the new arrivals?  Will we finally get to see the Titus vs Darren “Every night off” Young feud that we should have had when the Primetime Players broke up?
20. Alicia Fox vs Naomi (N/A) – I’ve got to agree with Fred about the Funkadactyls still being a thing when Brotus Clay has now been fired.  It’s a bit odd and unnecessary other than to play their music.  Without the Funkasaurus, the bit should go extinct (see what I did there).  I was excited to get Alicia Fox vs the more talented of the ‘Dactyls but it was too bad that we were distracted by the awful commentary bit.  They didn’t even pay it off by having the ‘Dactyls fight at the end.  I suppose they’re saving that breakup for the PPV.  I don’t know if their breakup will be as heavy as The Shield’s recent split but I’m sure it will be close.  No?  No one is going to care?  

Honorable Mentions

Daniel Bryan – They couldn’t find him to bring the belts to the WWE but they’re able to bring him to the pre-show of the PPV?  At this point I’d rather just let him heal and make a surprise out of his return than to drag him and us along with whatever nonsense he’ll be performing during the pre-show.  The WWE’s chance to do his story correctly has passed and we’ve moved on.  Let him return with some flare and dignity.  

Paige and Cameron – This had to be the worse segment of the night.  What should have been solid match between Alicia Fox vs Naomi, somehow got turned into the Cameron show which no one wants to watch.  Cameron better watch what she wishes for.  She won’t like the ending but it will be good “reality” TV to see Cameron being “let go” on Total Divas next season.   

Side Note(s)

It was funny when Barrett took a shot at Washington’s racist named football team (the Redskins) and my brother-in-law texted me that it sent the crowd wild but was a low hanging fruit.  I had to laugh.  Not because it’s beneath the WWE to hit a city below the belt for some heel heat but the fact that the announcers had to do a lot of explaining to the home audience to frame what Barrett was talking about.  I’m just surprised that Vince didn’t take it further and say something like, “The XFL never had a team called the Blackskins!”  They may forgive but Vincent K McMahon and family never forget.  I love seeing the WWE take shots at the NFL even if no one under 20 or into other sports will remember and / or know the reason why.  A little history lesson kids; for one week 2001 the XFL had the NFL shaking in it’s boots.  Obviously the XFL didn’t take off and only had a short run but the effects and some of the innovations can still be seen in the NFL today.  We’ll have to do a retrospect on the XFL one day…

Until next time…