That Wrestling Blog 01/06/2019

5th Edition – January 06, 2019

I first want to start off by giving all 10 of my fans my new year’s resolutions for 2019. I want to release positive energy into the world. I want to not criticize or make fun of anyone and more importantly I want to bring you all peace and love. #NEWYEARNEWME!

On that note, how amazingly wonderful was both RAW and Smackdown this week? We saw fresh faces such as Triple H, John Cena and Vince McMahon that brought “fresh start” to 2019. Ah fuck it, I was sick of hearing the word fresh start by the end of the first hour of RAW. As most of the people who break their resolutions within the first month, I managed to break mine within the second paragraph.

I will say, in all seriousness, that both shows were ok, particularly Smackdown Live which gave us a cool in ring segment with Cena and The Man and a great main event to decide who would face the “Evil Vegan” Daniel Bryan. Just on Daniel Bryan, his character is actually promoting something we should all be doing and that is to use less plastic, eat good food and look after the environment. Yet, he still gets the most boos of the night. It just goes to show how many people think vegans and environmentalists are the enemy and how much this world is completely fuckin doomed!

Anyway, enough about future world problems, let’s talk about current wrestling problems, shall we? There been have had a couple of taped shows over the past couple of weeks to allow wrestlers to spend time with their families over the Christmas and New Year period. This received some backlash from fans which I think is pretty ridiculous. Their schedule is brutal and having a couple of taped shows to allow them to take a bit of a break, I am all for it. However, and it’s a really big fucking however, it did remind of why I hate taped shows. I hate taped shows for a couple of reasons, the first one being that it gives them a chance to edit crowd shots and it seems like there are more shots of the crowd with taped shows. I don’t want to see some overweight guy in the crowd eating is his third bag of popcorn, I want the action in the ring please.

BUT! The main reason ladies and gentlemen, the main reason why I hate taped shows is………THE FUCKING FAKE CROWD NOISES! I especially noticed this on Smackdown more than RAW, particularly when Naomi was making her entrance, the crowd cheer that was edited in was like surprise Rock return in Maddison Square Garden, wayyyyyyyyy over the top. I mean Naomi is over a little bit, but she’s not that over. The second time I really noticed it was during the Samoa Joe entrance. Now I know he’s a heel, but there is always a section of the audience who chants “Joe, Joe, Joe” as he comes out (including myself). But what I hear when he came out this week? Nothing but boos, and really loud boos for that matter. Pittsburg doesn’t hate Joe that much, I guarantee it.

I should probably talk about some actual wrestling right now shouldn’t I? The Intercontinental title has definitely been through its ups and downs over the past years. Sometimes it is promoted as being one the most prestigious titles in all of wrestling and sometimes it’s just an accessory without having too much meaning behind it. When they (WWE, pronouns pal) attempt to rebuild the prestige of the belt, (sorry Vince) they tell the same story about Pat Patterson, Ricky Steamboat and Macho Man being some of the greatest I.C champions in history. Yeah WWE, we know that, we know the history but the reminded us of it again this week.

Now I was happy with the opportunity that was given to Apollo Crews this week, I was interested to see him in a longer match fighting in the main event, oh wait, hang on, the match wasn’t the main event. It was a shitty tag match. But they just told me about the history and the prestige and they had a battle royal and they went through all that to just be “another match.” Call me old fashioned, but the main event of the show is that last match of the card, always has and always will be. I also know that with the 3 hour timeslot that there tends to be less focus on the main event of the show and more focus on the beginning of each hour. I just thought it would have been nice to have this match as the main event. It wasn’t going to hurt anyone, it just would have been nice, and that’s all.

Sam Story 
Aka That Wrestling Guy

P.S. I want to apologize for not having a blog last week, I know so many people depend on it for their weekly professional wrestling fix, but I was on a large cocaine and alcohol bender and ended up in some situations I never thought I would be. Thankfully, I can now say that I have paid my debts and will continue to write for you lovely people every week.