Survivor Series Thoughts: Looking Ahead to 2017

Although a long card at 3 1/2 hours, I give WWE Survivor Series a thumbs up.

Best Match: Tag Team Elimination Match

Worst Match: Brian Kendrick vs Kalisto

2K games makes deals with wrestlers not currently employed by the WWE, and then WWE somehow works them into the ring. Ultimate Warrior, Sting, and now Bill Goldberg. A true mercenary who wrestled for nothing but the money (and later for the fame as a superhero good guy), Bill Goldberg walked away with no regrets. He came back for one year and left with a bitter taste.

But time heals all wounds. And in the intervening years, Goldberg got married and fathered a child – who learned all about the lore and legacy of Bill Goldberg but never saw his father, live, in the ring.

That all changed when 2K made the deal for Goldberg to appear as part of WWE 2017. 

Goldberg came back, did a promo, and got over with the live crowd. It was a truly visceral response. Clearly there has been some recalculation on the part of WWE concerning Bill Goldberg, since his first in-ring promo a month ago, where he said "Brock Lesnar – You're Last."

In the real world, Goldberg would have done exactly what he did tonight – back up his words with a 1:27 squash of Brock Lesnar. Then he hugged his wife, kissed his son, high-fived the fans, then brought his son into the ring to celebrate with him before leaving triumphant.

And he would fade away and disappear.

But this being pro wrestling, the storyline continues tomorrow night. The finish will draw eyeballs to RAW. The WWE will either open the show with a Paul Heyman rant, or tease that Heyman and Lesnar are in the building and demanding airtime. Or they will just show up and Lesnar throws around everyone like a maniac, causing a no decision in the main event. 

Or they do nothing. Not this week, not next week. Nothing until perhaps the Royal Rumble. But at some point Brock Lesnar is going to return, and he is going to return pissed. And nothing will placate him except another match... with Bill Goldberg.

And that match will be at.....WrestleMania.

Okay, I'm watching.

Cena Victorious at WrestleMania 29, Now We All Suffer

Another WrestleMania is in the books.

The Undertaker chalked up another victory (that's 21-0 if you're still counting).

HHH broke his two-year losing streak. After staying behind the scenes since last August, he returned to sabotage next year's main event (but I'll get to that later).

Meanwhile, Antonio Cesaro, one of the WWE's standout performers, could not even get a spot on the pre-show.

But one thing remained constant. Since 2005, the face of the company (John Cena) was in a dominant position on the card. In fact, when the show signed off, The Rock had seemingly endorsed Cena, the man who had defeated him in the main event.

WWE was happy. Women and children were happy. Pay per view distributors were happy. Local merchants were happy. Independent wrestling promoters and wrestlers who booked and grappled on "tagalong" events in the vicinity of MetLife Stadium in New Jersey were happy.

There was just one thing wrong with this rosy picture. John Cena has not one new damn opponent under the sun to wrestle. Brock Lesnar? Beat him last year. Randy Orton (soon to turn heel)? Spent a whole year fighting him. Big Show? Their matches go back to the curtain jerker at WrestleMania 20. HHH? Beat him in the main event of WM22. Wade Barrett? They did that as part of the Nexus feud. Sheamus? Been there, done that. The Miz? Spent six months ruining him. CM Punk? Done as the setup for Mania this year, as well as the latter half of 2011. Etc., etc.

Unless Mark Henry's victory over Ryback was the setup for challenging Cena, there are precious few "new" options for the WWE's golden boy. And that's a problem for all of us, as well as for them (Cena already faced Ryback in a three-way with Punk last winter).

Rock vs Cena was touted last year as "Once in a Lifetime" and made so much money that the WWE felt they had to redo the match in 2013, this time with a title at stake. But it exposed an underlining weakness in the promotion's booking…the ability to get behind a performer – any performer who is not Cena – and stick the proverbial "rocket up their keister."

The WWE is attempting to turn Alberto Del Rio into a new Latino babyface superstar. Unfortunately, the same booking over the past 18 months made Del Rio virtually worthless to Latin audiences. But they are pulling out all the stops and feeding him second-tier opponents like Jack Swagger.

But where were the other babyfaces positioned on the WM29 card? The Miz (who got a main event victory over Cena courtesy of the Rock two years ago) was relegated to the pre-show. Sheamus and Randy Orton were gone after the opening match, beaten by the Shield and then laid out by KO punches from the Big Show. Ryback (perhaps leading to a heel turn) put over the aging powerlifter, Mark Henry. Vince does love those big men. Discounting senior citizens HHH and the Undertaker, that left Cena as the primary babyface victor to the general public.

Last year, HHH pushed the bookers to give his pet project (Sheamus) a rocket push with an 18-second victory over Daniel Bryan for the World title. Bryan was talented enough to stretch the feud for another two months. But Sheamus (the same age as Cena) never cracked that glass ceiling and plunged back into the opening match on this year's card.

Orton has been "there and back" for 10 years. Two drug failures have put him in an interesting position. The company had Randy as their "1A" babyface behind Cena. But Orton never clicked to the general public as well as Cena nor grabbed as many media appearances. And one more drug failure is a mandatory one-year suspension. So Orton has shot himself in the foot in that respect.

The WWE suffered through a "lost generation" of babyfaces a few years ago, due to the departures of Ken Kennedy (nee Anderson), MVP, and Bobby Lashley. The latter sought to pursue his MMA dreams and the first pair were plagued by injuries and fights with the creative team. Anderson went to TNA and has added nothing. MVP chose a different path and traveled the world, but could he be a difference-maker? He wasn't in three-plus years of tenure prior to exiting.

Every time I hear about "long-term" plans for a superstar, I know not to hold my breath. Where's that Dolph Ziggler title run? Whatever happened to John Morrison? Kofi Kingston was two blown moves away from main eventing PPVs.

Now there are rumors that the two top matches at WM30 – in 2014 – will be The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker vs. John Cena. Splendid. Wonderful. Let's keep those four guys far, far away from the title matches and attempt to build up guys who can main event in 2015 and 2016 and beyond.

WWE needs to choose three or four guys. I'd say Ziggler, Barrett, Bryan, and Cesaro. And consistently book them over everybody else. Because after 2014, the Rock is gone. Cena will have headlined on top far longer than Hulk Hogan's reign. Undertaker may finally have hung it up. Steve Austin will be 50. The one-shot novelties and hot-shot angles may not cut it anymore. The promotion may have to back up their biggest show of the year with actual wrestling talent and a good storyline.

Are they up for the challenge? I'd like to think so. But it's going to take some courageous booking and turning a blind eye to ratings some weeks. When all is said and done, it would be great if CM Punk could fulfill his "last wish in wrestling" and headline WM31 against a super babyface who is NOT John Cena. The WWE just has to get their act together and begin building that babyface tonight on RAW.

New Swagger In WWE Title Picture

Maybe the pot affected his common sense.

Who knows.

But WWE performer Jack Swagger picked a heck of a time to be speeding...while in possession of marijuana.

On its most recent PPV, Swagger bested five other competitors in the "Elimination Chamber" to win a WrestleMania 29 championship match against World heavyweight titleholder Alberto Del Rio.

Jack Swagger and manager Zeb Colter.

The next night on RAW, Swagger and manager Zeb Colter (Dutch Mantel) issued another anti-immigration rant, meant to aggravate Del Rio and build heat for their face-off.

On Tuesday night, following the taping for Smackdown (which airs on Fridays on SyFy), Swagger got in his car and headed off – very fast and apparently very high. Cops pulled him over and charged him with speeding, possession, and DUI.

WWE could have immediately written him out of their plans for WrestleMania, as they had two days to rework Smackdown before it aired. They did not.

Swagger is not out of the woods, however. WWE has in the past used a possession charge to strip a titleholder of his belt (Rob Van Dam). On the other hand, Randy Orton allegedly smoked dope in the building where WWE was taping shows and was never penalized. And WWE Dvia Cameron was arrested for DUI last year and attempted to bribe the police officer. She, too, is still on the active roster.

Swagger should be punished by WWE for his actions. Perhaps he's blown his chances at winning the title any time in the near future. However he is certainly hotter (media-wise) then at any time in his career. And on Monday night, it will be interesting to see how the live crowd reacts to him, knowing his current situation.

If WWE wants to capitalize on the arrest and turn it into some kind of positive, I would propose the following scenario.

Swagger and Colter come to the ring. Swagger wears a suit. He takes the mike and says something like this:

First of all, I want to apologize for my actions last week.

By driving while impaired, I could have seriously injured other motorists or pedestrians.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me just say... It wasn't my fault.

I love professional wrestling.

I have always loved professional wrestling.

But it's hard.

Hard to learn, hard to compete, hard to become the best.

It's mentally hard and physically hard.

To become the best, you have to put wrestling first. So mentally, you turn off your life. And you turn off any physical pain.

Last year, I suffered a back injury. But I wanted to prove that I was the best, so I turned off the pain until I couldn't turn it off any longer.

During my time off, I found ways to treat the pain in my back. And I put my life back together.

When I was ready to reclaim my spot, I returned to the WWE and entered the Elimination Chamber and won. It was one of the greatest nights of my life.

Did I have any pain in my back? Sure. But I could turn it off.

A few nights later, while I was waiting backstage, a package was delivered to me. There was no return address, so I should have just thrown it away. But I didn't.

Inside was a note saying, "This will help your back pain."

The note was taped to a plastic envelope containing medical marijuana.

I'm not ashamed to say that I have used medical marijuana in the past. Like I said, I suffered from a legitimate back injury and I had a legal prescription.

However, I had no prescription for this medical marijuana and I was in a state where medical marijuana is not legal.

Long story short, you all know what happened.

Whoever sent me that package set me up. Somebody backstage in that arena waited until I had that package in my hands. Then they watched me leave the building and they waited and they called the cops. 

Like I said, it wasn't my fault.

As Zeb Colter says, there are people in this country who don't belong here. And there are people here in the WWE who don't like what he says. They don't like the truth. They want him gone, and they want ME gone.

Well, all they're going to get is the apology you people just heard. 

Alberto Del Rio...I have people investigating that package. And if I find out that you sent it, or that you know who sent it, there will be repercussions.

Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez

I don't mean just beating you at WrestleMania and taking your title.

I mean taking your passport, and your livelihood, and sending you back where you belong. Out of the WWE, out of this sport, out of this business, out of this country.

At this point, Swagger should be looking into the camera with his back to the ramp.

Alberto Del Rio runs from the ramp and attacks Swagger, ripping his suit off. As Colter tries to interfere, he is tackled by Del Rio's sidekick, Ricardo Rodriguez. Officials have to come to the ring and separate the men.

Working the arrest into storyline, Swagger stays a heel. By accusing Del Rio of being complicit in his arrest, he adds heat to their feud. And if everything works out, "the authorities" can come forward at a later time and reveal who DID frame Swagger, leading to the next feud.

Or the WWE can just punt, and take Swagger out of the title match. They didn't change Smackdown, so clearly they're waiting to see the public reaction. Well, here's my reaction. Your move, booking committee.

Jeff Plays WWE Booker through WM 2013

Twenty years ago, I ran a pro wrestling newsletter called FANTASY FEDERATION.

The premise was simple – We had the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and seldom did a main event performer slip from one group to the other.

I also ran matchups from different eras, such as Bruno Sammartino vs Ric Flair. And the occasional Japanese headliner vs an American champion (this was when I had the time to pay for and watch tapes from overseas).

After a few years, Hulk Hogan made the move to WCW and the dam broke. There was no reason for me to keep producing the newsletter when we had the Monday Night Wars and main event programs were being wasted for the sake of an extra 200,000 viewers on an October night.

CM Punk

Now we have one major promotion (WWE) and one minor promotion (Impact). Since Impact does not know how to build a superstar, their most popular talent are the people who were once big names in WWE, living in the dying days of their stardom.

As the fall season develops, WWE begins its build to the biggest show of the year – WrestleMania 29 (April 2013 in New Jersey). WWE has spent a few months dropping teases of things to come. Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson announced that he would challenge for the championship at January's Royal Rumble. CM Punk then delivered a Rock Bottom (Rock's own finisher) to Johnson on an episode of RAW.

Most observers felt that Punk was being kept strong through Rumble to set up a Rock vs Punk match, where Rock would win the championship. He would then hold the title and drop it to John Cena in a rematch of last year's "Match of a Lifetime" that drew a near-record buyrate for PPV.

But then age and injuries caught up with WWE. Cena needed surgery to repair his injured wrist and the damage was determined to be worse than thought. He would have to miss October's HELL IN A CELL PPV that was to be headlined by him vs Punk. In a jam and lacking live bodies, WWE punted and elevated Ryback into the spot.

A former Tough Enough contestant, Ryback was last seen as Skip Sheffield, a smiling hick cowboy member of the Nexus, a gimmick from three years ago. An injury took him out of that angle and he was rebuilt as a clone of Bill Goldberg. Given an undefeated winning streak, Ryback won squash matches and said little. WWE ignored the chants of "Goldberg" and after months of minute-long bouts, Ryback started to slowly get over with crowds.

The problem is, raising Ryback's hand at HELL IN A CELL, and giving him the championship over Punk, ruins months of previously-planned booking. Not to mention in all likelihood throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars of business in the trash. The locked cell gimmick has already been compromised. So another "crap" finish devalues the gimmick. But Punk has been champ for 300+ days, which has gotten over huge. And Ryback is undefeated (with a few DQ or countout victories over that stretch). Something's gotta give.

Ryback

I have a booking suggestion that allows WWE to keep their scheduled booking plans, and diverts Ryback into some big matchups of his own.

The best potential solution would be Punk's "manager" Paul Heyman making a frantic phone call on RAW, telling someone that "Money is no object."

At the end of the episode, Heyman gets a text or a voice message and looks relieved, as a tease.

John Cena should be announced as the special guard for the door at HELL IN A CELL, to prevent interference from Heyman or anyone else.

Cut to the PPV: Late in the match, Ryback hits his finish.

A rip appears in the corner of the fabric covering the ring and a hand appears from the rip, distracting Ryback.

The hand grabs his leg and pulls Ryback through the ring.

Cena is going nuts outside the ring, demanding the ref unlock the door. 

Inside the cell, Punk recovers and heads for the door.

A man climbs out from under the ring, wearing a hoodie, carrying a pipe.

He tosses down the pipe and throws back his hoodie: BIG DAVE BATISTA.

The crowd goes nuts. Heyman laughs. Cena is stunned.

The ref opens the cell. Heyman distracts Cena and Punk bolts past him and stumbles up the ramp, losing by DQ.

As the PPV goes off the air, Cena and Batista do a stare-down. No sign of Ryback.

Ryback should not appear on TV in the buildup for SURVIVOR SERIES (November's PPV). The main event should be a three-way championship match between CM Punk, John Cena, and Batista.

For the SS finish, Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment on Punk but Batista breaks it up. Before Batista can hit his finisher on Cena, Ryback's music plays and Batista bails as the big man runs to the ring. Ryback spears Punk (who gets the win via DQ).

This leaves the WWE in exactly the same place it wanted to be when Cena was injured – Punk as champ, positioned for Rock.

But they have a ready-made feud program for Ryback (with Batista) to cement him as a main eventer.

And Cena is "free" to set up a match with Undertaker, if that's the direction the WWE wants to go.

Batista gets a tremendous six-month payday for working limited dates and headlining multiple PPVs (Survivor Series, TLC, Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and WM). If Batista wants to stick around, there's a built-in babyface turn so he can be programmed against Punk post-WM, to get Punk's heat back after losses to Rock and possibly Undertaker.

There's some amateur armchair booking from a guy who spent 3+ years doing it in his spare time. Enjoy the show and let's see how the WWE works their way out of it.

Road to WrestleMania: 2012 Leads to 2013

Reports are that Brock Lesnar is in Miami and is negotiating with WWE.

WWE is happy with the one-year buildup to Cena v Rock for WrestleMania 27, and they clearly want to duplicate that success in 2013.

WWE wants to shoot an angle on next Monday night on RAW (April 2), which is generally the highest-rated episode of the year, coming on the heels of WrestleMania.



This may explain why The Miz was added to "Team Johnny," after WWE was doing a storyline that after headlining WM last year, he couldn't even get on a match this year.

Lesnar may be put in Miz's spot at WM - the guy who interferes in the main event, costing The Rock the victory against Cena.

The Rock would then show up Monday night and ask Lesnar to explain himself, leading to a physical confrontation. In all likelihood, John Cena would be the middleman, getting the two to agree to work the main event NEXT year (Rock v Lesnar). Remember that when WWE first brought in Lesnar, Rock was the one who put over Brock, which started him on his rise to the top.

Lesnar can also use his post-WWE success, as a guy who left and got even more famous in MMA - as the storyline material.

I could see them doing dual main events in 2013: Rock v Lesnar and Undertaker v Goldberg. Bill Goldberg has mentioned in conversations that he would like to come back for one more big match, since his son is now old enough to watch pro wrestling.

Add a potential Steve Austin v CM Punk match to the card and you already have three strong matches for 2013, with neither the World nor WWE Championships matches even being discussed.

WM 28: Cena's Final Promo (Suggestion)

World Wrestling Entertainment is building to its annual super event, WrestleMania 28 on Sunday, April 1 from Miami, Florida. The main event is current superstar John Cena versus the "last generation's superstar, "The Rock."



The matchup apparently came from a conversation that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon in early 2011. Earlier in his career, The Rock had wrestled returning icon Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18 in 2002. With his acting career at full throttle, Johnson had growing itch to return to the ring. A plan was hatched to have The Rock return at last year's event and cost Cena the title as he challenged The Miz. The following night on RAW, Cena and The Rock shook hands on a singles match for 2012.

The itch grew into a rash last fall and Johnson teamed with Cena at Survivor Series. The storyline made no sense, but The Rock wanted to fulfill another dream - to wrestle again at Madison Square Garden, where he made his WWE debut. PPV numbers were lackluster but fans who did buy the show saw that Johnson was in great shape and eager to perform once again.



Now the WrestleMania promotional machine is going full force. For the past two weeks, Cena and the Rock have closed Monday Night RAW with dueling promos (a combination of scripted monologues and off-the-cuff remarks). Leading up to WM 27 in 2011, The Rock wiped the floor with Cena (and Cena's opponent, the Miz, who was almost an afterthought, even in victory). This time around, the battle has been surprisingly even.

The Rock talks about how the fans are sick of Cena. In response, Cena talks about how he will never leave WWE and his fans, like the Rock did to go into movies.

But if Cena really wants to give a convincing argument, I would suggest the following promo to close the last RAW prior to WM (Monday, March 26):

The Rock says that I'm the problem and he's the solution, but he's got it backwards.

This year is not be the first time we've both wrestled at WrestleMania.

No, we both wrestled at WrestleMania 20. That was back in 2004, when I was a pup, still wet behind the ears, thinking I was the Doctor of Thuganomics.

I was in the curtain-jerker, which is what people in the business call the opening match. As Cody Rhodes showed earlier tonight as one of The Big Show's WrestleMania embarrassments, I won the United States title from him.

Thirty minutes later, The Rock and Mick Foley lost to Evolution - Batista, Randy Orton, and Ric Flair.

Then he disappeared for seven and a half years.

The next year at WrestleMania 21, I defeated JBL for the WWE Championship.

According to The Rock, that's when the problem started.

But I say the problem started when the Rock lost at WrestleMania 20. The problem was, he lost.

See, the year before that, The Rock was in the main event and won. He beat Stone Cold Steve Austin. In 2004, he was waaaaaay down the card, in a tag team match.

Once you've been on top, that's a long way to fall.

Me? I went from being in the curtain-jerker to tearing down the house in the main event.

The Rock? In 2004, he went backstage, shook hands with two or three of the boys, packed up his toys and went home. He went to Hollywood. Made movies. Did well for himself.

The Rock leaving the WWE after WrestleMania 20 was the problem, and I was the solution.

It ate him up that he wasn't in the main event at WrestleMania. And who was? Someone younger, someone more charismatic, someone smarter - let's face it, me.

The Rock says that John Cena is what's wrong with the WWE. Well, you know something, Rock? If I'm the problem, then you have nobody to blame but yourself.

YOU LEFT. You walked out on your fans - these fans - the WWE Universe - the greatest, most loyal and dedicated fans in the world.

This Sunday at WrestleMania, The Rock is in the main event - because I shook his hand and agreed to wrestle him. But that's my spot now. You can't turn back time, Rock. You had your time in the spotlight and now your spotlight is in Hollywood.

My time is now and my spotlight is in this squared circle.

And Rock, you think you can turn back the clock, walk back into MY HOUSE, and push me back to being a CURTAIN-JERKER? If you do, here's a throwback for ya - you can choke on MY NUTS [Cena throws a package of peanuts at The Rock].