It's been a busy weekend and I apologize that the daily updates have slowed down. Rest assured, I will try and prevent that from ever happening again!
In that time, there were a number of newsworthy events worth covering. Since I haven't yet done that, I hope this articles serves to catch everyone up on wrestling happenings and of course, get my all important take on it all. Let's see what we got:
Impact Leaving Orlando?
The word as of this writing is that TNA is trying an experiment in February with its Impact tapings. They will travel to North Carolina to tape two shows to be aired in the weeks that follow. This will follow the same procedure as Impact Zone tapings, but will be done in front of a crowd that isn't the smarky idiots that usually ruin Impact broadcasts.
The goal here for TNA is to gage crowd reactions for their performers to see how over they truly are. Of course, for that to happen, they have to draw a crowd first. If they are able to do that, it could lead to Impact being taped outside the Impact Zone at least a few times a year.
This can only be see as a major positive. The Impact Zone crowd is incredibly distracting and awful as a wrestling crowd, and it should be noticeablely better for the show to be outside of the normal idiocy. We'd all like to see Impact become a traveling show, as the crowd reactions could dictate who really deserves pushes. However, this experiment needs to go well first. That shouldn't be a problem, as it will be in North Carolina, home of TNA stars Matt and Jeff Hardy, as well as Ric Flair. Granted they are all heels, but their names should help draw a crowd near their home.
The real question will be whether Jeff can prove to be an effective heel in front of his hometown fans. He'll get the initial hometown pop, but can he change the cheers to boos? We will find out soon.
Two Nexuses?
After Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater walked out on CM Punk on Monday, none of us knew what to think of their future. Their entire WWE existence has been contingent on their association to a group, and that......will not change at all. Wade Barrett migrated to Smackdown, and his former cohorts are now with him there as well. To fill out the group, Ezekiel Jackson ended his short-lived face run by attacking Big Show along with the old members of Nexus.
It remains to be seen what this new group will be called, but it's interesting to say the least. It's clear that NEXUS is CM Punk's group over on Raw, but ironically, this group has more original members than the other one.
What's more ironic to me is that literally 6 months ago, CM Punk had a 4 member group on Smackdown while Wade Barrett was leading a group on Raw. Now, the entire thing has been flipped on end. I'm not sure if there's something deeper there, but it's an interesting fact.
I think it's pretty obvious now that Barrett's eventual target will be Undertaker, but how will they kill time until then? Gang beatdowns will get old fast, so they better find a feud. This has potential, even if something similar is going on over on the Red brand.
Dolph Ziggler Gets First Title Shot
Unfortunately, he's the third wheel in the feud. With his girlfriend Vickie Guerrero having previously been married to the champion, Edge, the feud is obviously based around that. As such, I'm holding out no hope that Ziggler will get over on his own for this one until the bell sounds. He's been holding his own with everyone, including Randy Orton and John Cena, so I figure this will at least be a pretty good match.
I do wonder though if Ziggler has any staying power in the main event. Without Vickie Guerrero, is he good enough as a heel to get heat? I can almost see him more as a face.......
Punk Gets Raked In the Eye.........By a Fan!
Yes, this is actually true. At a house show on Sunday, Punk was apparently shouting at some fans when a young fan, estimated to be about 10 years old, actually hit Punk! Never one to break character, the Straight Edge Superstar challenged the kid to do it again and he did! At this point, it's been reported that Punk grabbed the kid by the shirt and he began to cry. The parents then stepped in and it got heated. Punk ended up walking away yelling that his eye was scratched, but it got no worse than that.
While many have been pointing blame at Punk, can we please first discuss the parents? A TEN YEAR OLD STRUCK A WRESTLER! This is wrong on so many levels. When you go to a show, the bad guys are supposed to get you to boo them, and while Punk may take it farther than others, it still does not give any fan the right to lay a hand on a wrestler. I'd almost expect it from a fat, drunk fan, but a kid? These parents need to teach the kid right and wrong again, because in no way should that kid have EVER raised a hand to a grown man.
Of course, Punk will get the biggest blame for instigating and for stretching the kids shirt when he grabbed him, but let's be honest. The parents sucked in this situation and they let their child hit a superstar multiple times. Please have control over your kids! Punk can be a jerk, and even moreso in character, but you can't hit somebody. That is not part of the show. Still, the end result was a stretched shirt and a little swelling under the eye. This could have been a lot worse.
I sincerely hope that these stupid parents never go back a show. At least not until they learn how to control their child......
Royal Rumble Expands to 40 Competitors
As if there weren't enough jobbers in a rumble of 30, the most exciting battle royale of the year will now have 10 more!
Pardon the sarcasm, but what are we really gaining here? I know the rosters are bigger these days, but are the extra 10 competitors really going to make a difference. Sure, it will be a thrill for guys like Darren Young and Yoshi Tatsu to make an appearance on Pay Per View, but it's just adding more guys to the match that have no shot at winning.
Realistically, every year there are MAYBE 6-8 guys that have a chance to win the thing. Thus, adding 10 new people is just delaying the inevitable. Of course, I love the rumble and I'm hoping this new concept works, but I feel like it will not. To be honest, the only way it will is to ensure that of the 10 new names, 3-5 are legends who aren't the same ones that we see 5 times a year, thus giving older fans a cheap thrill. Otherwise, you are just making it more difficult on bookers to try and fit in more guys who have no chance at winning.
Anyone want to wager that someone breaks the record of most men eliminated in one rumble this year?
Those are the main stories making news over the past few days. I will have my HOT or NOT up tomorrow and I should be able to finish the TNA 5 in the decline piece shortly as well. It should be an exciting next few days at MouthoftheSouthShore.com, so stay on board for the ride!
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