John Cena injured on European tour

[Chest Rockwell]

It shouldn't be one or the other. It should be both. Established guys holding the title can give it credibility, but building that kind of credibility up is pointless if you don't use it to give someone the rub from time to time.

 

Otherwise you're not building any business off it, right?

[dopper]

Meltzer said last night that the injury happened a week ago.

 

He worked the TV taping and then a few house shows with the injury so it's definitely not an Achilles tear, but nobody outside of WWE seems to know how serious the injury is.

[d-d-d-dAz]

It shouldn't be one or the other. It should be both. Established guys holding the title can give it credibility, but building that kind of credibility up is pointless if you don't use it to give someone the rub from time to time.

 

Otherwise you're not building any business off it, right?

 

I agree, to a point.

 

But, by the time someone is about to take that next step they should be ready. They should be hot as a Finders crispy pancake when you first bite into it, and more importantly the crowd should be fucking wet with excitement to see them win the title.

 

Batista is the example.

 

The crowd would have fucking murdered someone had he not beat Triple H for the title. He was already 'elevated', but that final rub saw him over the top. A genuine star was born.

 

Whereas now, it's almost like 'hey, you've worked hard, traded wins with Kofi in the midcard....here's the WWE title Miz!'. It's shit.

 

They've done a good job, first with Punks long reign, then The Rock winning and passing the torch to Cena. The title means something. If Cena is seriously injured, or gets so, it'd be shit if they just chucked the title on someone like that again. In that case, I'd much rather it went to a Lesnar or Taker, for sure.

[Daaaaaad!]

Tonight they should have Cena come out and go, "I got an injury but I'll be alright" and then continue on with WWE's plans for him.

 

Radical, I know, but it might just work!

Well then they shouldn't have mentioned a pissing thing. Unless they're just doing it to cover their backs in case it gets so bad he DOES have to give up the title. If this is all to drum up sympathy, it's a crap way of doing it.

[Up Chuck]

The match with Ryback is gonna be horrible if Cena's not going 100%, though. Not looking forward to that much.

 

Its Cena. Cena. The best wrestler in the world, not because of athleticism (although he is of course incredibly athletic) but because of the way he can tell stories, the big match feel he can create, the drama he works, if the match isn't up to scratch it won't be because of a tendon injury. Cena could work that in perfectly.

 

I did overstate it a bit, looking back. I dunno how much of a story he can tell around Ryback without throwing him self about a lot, though. What can you do? A slow-burner with Ryback going after the injury? I don't think Ryback's ready to carry that much of a main event. I think Cena/Ryback would be a cracker if Cena was doing most of the work, but if he's hurt, he might not be able to. That's what I was getting at. "Horrible" was a bit strong, you're right.

[teaboy2000]

less likely to of happened in actual wrestling boots no doubt, ditch the trainers I say.

[air_raid]

Why are we putting the title on Brock for a short period of time. Lesnar is on a limited dates contract and will probably be gone after Extreme Rules (and won't be back until SS). I can't see them putting it on Triple H either. He won't want to go back on the road at this stage of his career.

 

Remind me who Cena won the belt from? If they thought they could get more PPV buys with either of those guys as champion, they'd be champion.

 

less likely to of happened in actual wrestling boots no doubt, ditch the trainers I say.

 

Christ.

[Chest Rockwell]

Let it go, man. there's no need to point it out every time you see it happen.

[Loki]

Let it go, man. there's no need to point it out every time you see it happen.

 

Is this.. are you just...

 

I think Daz is spot on at the top of this page, and Batista is a great example. Another would be Lesnar himself. By the time he got to wrestle for the title, he was the hottest property in wrestling and people were slavering at the thought of all the matchups he was going to have with the other main eventers. And then getting the title suddenly gave that belt an extra zing, and extra legitimacy and meant that the splitting of the brands and the sharing of the champ was a big deal.

 

 

I've only watched Wrestlemania this year, so somebody can tell me, but... why have they got cold feet with Ryback then? The guy is over as hell, looks the business, and he and Henry had a good match so he's no slob in the ring. He's got charisma too, even though I think the little fist pump thing is a bit camp.

 

What's the issue?

[FrankCastle]

My argument is, if he sustained the injury and still worked house shows, then that was probably a way of seeing how well he could work with the pain. Given the fact that he's obviously capable of competing now (albeit less than 100%), why on earth mention it? Is it a way of protecting his aura by having an excuse for a potential defeat? If so that stinks, as it will look like no one can beat him clean.

 

I'll wait and see what they do first before criticising too much, but I hope this injury (if it is a storyline and not really serious), actually has a purpose and is not something that's brought up one week and forgotten the next.

[Up Chuck]

I've only watched Wrestlemania this year, so somebody can tell me, but... why have they got cold feet with Ryback then? The guy is over as hell, looks the business, and he and Henry had a good match so he's no slob in the ring. He's got charisma too, even though I think the little fist pump thing is a bit camp.

 

What's the issue?

 

They booked themselves into a corner last year and haven't managed to navigate a satisfying way out. They couldn't really capitalise on his massive increase in momentum in October, because they needed the belt on Punk for the Wrestlemania build to play out how it did. But they couldn't have him just lose dirty once then fuck the whole thing off, because he'd look like a massive chump. So they him lose dirty again, then lose the TLC match. In the meantime, he's had to go for revenge on the Shield a few times because otherwise he'd look like he was pussying out of fighting them, but they couldn't put him over because they wanted to build the Shield. Then they had to put him in the Rumble or risk overexposing the Shield with too many PPV matches, but they needed Cena to win the Rumble.

 

Basically, with the way things panned out, with who got injured when, with the guys they wanted to bring in at specific times, and with the peripheral storylines happening around Ryback, they had little choice. It was either cut his legs off in all the ways that actually happened, or cut them off in a whole bunch of other ways (not going for the TLC match with Punk, jobbing to the Shield, not even entering the Rumble to fight guys who'd already beaten him etc etc). The only thing that they didn't fuck themselves into was making him number 30 in the Rumble, which was idiotic if he wasn't going to win.

[ShortOrderCook]

Ryback was fine up until the Rumble, that's when they truly fucked him and it's a time when they could have truly made him. The booking of the Rumble and Ryback in particular was horrible. A guy like Ryback can't come in at 30 and not win unless you're doing the Goldberg thing at the 2004 Rumble, Goldy was handled perfectly there funnily enough. Ryback has suffered massively from long made concrete plans, but he didn't have to, they could still have had him gaining momentum now. He could and should have been made to look incredible at The Rumble and its the perfect match type for him and he also could have gained his revenge on The Shield here without them losing any momentum and suffering a proper loss. Shield could have all been in there, dominated a bit then Ryback enters around the mid way mark (or literally swapping places with Cena) eliminates all of The Shield , dominates, matches or beats Kanes record and still goes on to be runner up to Cena. Feel that could have keep him strong without changing the Mania Cena plans. I'm truly baffled with how they went with him at The Rumble. I think Ryback may be someone who's going to be guilty of same thing Dolph seemingly is and just happy to be employed in a decent position and never speak up for himself against shit ideas.

 

Loki, I disagree with you on the Brock assessment. You're remembering history incorrectly there I reckon. As nuts as it seems to think now, many felt Brock was being rushed into the main event at the time, and were disappointed he hadn't taken the IC title around the same time from RVD who he was feuding with. He was green as a high akaline turd at the time and it still felt a little early. It was only when it came to the match itself that it all suddenly felt very, very different and like he really belonged.

 

I'd disagree on Miz too. Miz actually had a very strong, old school build toward the main event. Although people weren't desperate for him to take the title, he certainly wasn't just suddenly thrust in there like a Sheamus, Swagger or Daniel Bryan. The MITB served as a perfect tool for Miz to reach that.

[air_raid]

I agree 100% with ShortOrder on Lesnar. "Goldberg" chants followed him in certain cities at the time, and people were screaming "too much, too soon" and everybody I spoke to in real life and online expected him to flatten RVD again and take the I title, to look a really strong challenger to then get beaten by whoever the incumbent was going to be at SummerSlam. Truth be told an equal number of us thought they'd ballsed it up for Brock at Unforgiven when his first title defence on PPV had a bullshit finish in place of a strong first outing as champion. Cries of "Taker playing politics again" and "should have booked him against someone willing to lie down" were all over the place, which was especially hard to swallow on the same night their favourite politician Triple H went over Rob Van Dam. It looked like Lesnar was a lame duck already. In fact, the Hell In A Cell was an anomaly in a pretty poor first title reign when you consider that his first title defence went over poorly and then he was booked to lose to the Big Show who'd spent all summer doing jobs for fucking everybody.

 

Miz I also thoroughly agree with. His build was brilliant. Through his United States title reigns and ShowMiz runs, he had transformed into one of the most hated men (if not the most hated) on the roster. The reaction to Daniel Bryan (who had still done fairly little of note at that point) taking the United States title from him would have been nowhere near as vocal if Miz hadn't been so acerbic and downright obnoxious in the preceding months. He was the best heel they had at the tail end of 2010 and when he won the briefcase, I thought "Good. He's ready." A-Ri was a great part of the package, and they were getting great heat. On that Slammys show when Angry Miz Girl was trying to say a few words, when Miz' music hit to indicate he was coming to interrupt, the noise that came out of that crowd sent a shiver down my spine. "He's made it," I thought. "They absolutely despise him." Nobody here needs telling where they went wrong with Miz once 2011 rolled around, but everything they did in preparing him to be be champion worked, in my eyes. Miz was the perfect example of "is a star now, is ready to be champion", unlike Swagger and Sheamus first time round where they thought just dumping a world title on them would make them a star.

 

Ryback should have taken the title from Punk in October. People were crying at the time that it would knacker the build for Punk/Rock, but I thought that was bollocks. A strong title win for Ryback in the Cell followed by a shady Punk win at either Survivors or TLC would have still allowed them to gauge reactions to Ryback main events and decide whether he was a useful main event babyface for post 'Mania storylines, and I don't think it would have hurt Punk/Rock and the buyrate one bit. People paid to see The Rock return and challenge for the title, and I don't believe the difference between Punk crowing about "434 days" and the announcers mentioning that Punk had hit a bit of a roadblock in the way would have affected a single person buying the PPV or not, even though artistically it might not have been as good at pretending Punk had built up an aura of invicibility. What they actually have ended up with by the end of 'Mania is not having a clue what to do with Ryback in his current incarnation, so they've turned him and started again. Fine. By not having Ryback win the belt when he was hot and capturing something organic, it sent a message out to me that they feel "fuck what the fans clamour for, we'll do what we want anyway." But then, that's not a new feeling for me, anyway.

 

Let it go, man. there's no need to point it out every time you see it happen.

 

I will try. I'll go and kick the cat instead.

[Mr Tibbs]

Remind me who Cena won the belt from? If they thought they could get more PPV buys with either of those guys as champion, they'd be champion.

 

The Rock was booked way in advance to win the title at RR and then lose to Cena at WM. This wasn't some knee jerk reaction to an injury. They have limted dates on Lesnar so why blow through them early on in the year. You need your world champion at house shows and TV and there is no fucking way that Brock Lesnar is going on the road. I know the Rock never went on the road but you had Cena on the house shows to offset that. This time you won't have that comfort blanket.

 

After Extreme Rules you probably won't see Lesnar until SS or later! Actually I would have held of Triple H Lesnar 3 until Hell in a Cell. Then at least you have a reason to have a hell in a cell match unlike the last couple of years where the gimmick has been used for no reason which in turn has damaged it's drawing power.

 

This is the WWE fault at the end of the day. There failure to groome new stars is really exposed at times like this. As I said before, it's time for the writers to get their heads out of their arses and develop some talent. The Sheild has been excellent so they can do it (when Triple H tells them to).

[Loki]

Loki, I disagree with you on the Brock assessment. You're remembering history incorrectly there I reckon. As nuts as it seems to think now, many felt Brock was being rushed into the main event at the time, and were disappointed he hadn't taken the IC title around the same time from RVD who he was feuding with. He was green as a high akaline turd at the time and it still felt a little early. It was only when it came to the match itself that it all suddenly felt very, very different and like he really belonged.

 

You may be right - I don't think I was really reading fan reaction on the net at the time, I just remember thinking he looked awesome and hearing some good crowd reactions. I remember him powerbombing people all over the shop, including triple powerbombs, and that sort of thing, and thinking "fucking hell".