With regards to Roman Reigns.The line you hear is that REigns is supposed to be the next John Cena.  For the life of me I can’t see that happening.  Reigns just doesn’t have the talking skills and doesn’t come off as an alpha male like Cena or any other top guy.  What I can however see is Reigns as the next Batista or Goldberg.  That’s not a bad place to be in and would put him as one of the top guys in the company for a very long time.

AKA nine hours of “My client Brock Lesnar conquered the Undertaker’s Streak.”

DISC 1
* Survivor
* Photographer
* Promoter
* Manager
* Memphis
* AWA
* WCW
* ECW
* Team Mentality
* Rebels
* Commentator
* Writer
* OVW
* New ECW
* Businessman
* Father
* Return to WWE
* Embracing the Moment

DISC 2
Paul E. is always in contact
AWA Championship Wrestling • August 1987

Pink Suspenders
AWA Superstars • August 1987

I’ll Be Johnny Carson
AWA Championship Wrestling • August 1987

Danger Zone with Ted E. Bear
AWA Championship Wrestling • September 1987

You want to be a Cartoon?
AWA All Star Wrestling • September 1987

If Excitement Had a Name
AWA Superstars • September 1987

More Publicity
AWA Championship Wrestling • September 1987

Adrian Adonis
AWA All Star Wrestling • October 1987

The Definition of Pro Wrestling
AWA Superstars • November 1987

The Sequel Jim Cornette
NWA Pro Wrestling • October 1988

Nobody Wanted Paul E.
World Championship Wrestling • November 1988

Louisville Slugger
NWA Pro Wrestling • December 1988

The Year of Paul E. Dangerously
World Championship Wrestling • January 1989

Danger Zone with Ric Flair
World Championship Wrestling • March 1989

I’m So Handsome
NWA Main Event • March 1989

I Don’t Have Wrestlers I Have Animals
World Wide Wrestling • March 1989

Ding Dong Who is it?
NWA Main Event • July 1989

The Era of the Dangerous Alliance
World Championship Wrestling • September 1989

Paul Heyman WWE DVD Match Listing, Full ContentSting’s Doll
Power Hour • May 1991

Save Us from Captain Oklahoma
World Championship Wrestling • November 1991

The Dangerous Alliance
World Championship Wrestling • November 1991

The Paul E. Awards
World Wide Wrestling • February 1992

The Ultimatum is at Hand
Pro Wrestling • April 1992

A New Dangerous Alliance
ECW Hardcore TV • October 1993

WCW Wants Sabu
ECW Hardcore TV • June 1994

Wrestler and Violence
ECW Hardcore TV • July 1994

Winds of Change
ECW Hardcore TV • November 1994

Cash Rules Everything
ECW Hardcore TV • December 1994

Best Wrestling You’ve Ever Seen
ECW Hardcore TV • January 1995

There Ain’t No Organization Like ECW
ECW • February 1996

ECW Comes to Pay-Per-View
ECW • February 1997

We Cleared Cablevision!
ECW • March 1998

The Card Has Changed
ECW Guilty As Charged • January 1999

The War Has Just Begun
ECW on TNN • June 2000

DISC 3
Paul Heyman Hates Mr. McMahon’s Stinkin’ Guts
SmackDown • November 15, 2001

Introducing: “The Next Big Thing”
RAW • April 8, 2002

Paul Heyman, Mr. McMahon & Eric Bischoff All Share One Ring
RAW • May 23, 2005

Paul Heyman Thanks the ECW Faithful
ECW One Night Stand • 12 June 2005

The Resurrection of ECW
ECW One Night Stand • June 11, 2006

From the Bingo Hall to the Garden
ECW • September 12, 2006

Mr. McMahon Gives Paul Heyman a Performance Review
RAW • January 28, 2013

Paul Heyman Gives CM Punk His Resignation
RAW • February 11, 2013

It’s Clobbering Time for CM Punk
RAW • July 15, 2013

Volcano
RAW • October 21, 2013

Paul Heyman Drops a Pipe Bomb
RAW • March 3, 2014

The Original Midnight Express vs. The New Midnight Express
Main Event • January 21, 1989

Hardy Boyz vs. Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman
Judgment Day • May 19, 2002

No Disqualification Handicap Elimination Match
CM Punk vs. Curtis Axel & Paul Heyman

In a recent interview.  I can’t say I blame him, but unfortunately this means we’ll be subjected to more IT’S A WORK discussions.

http://www.redeyechicago.com/sports/redeye-cm-punk-is-an-artist-for-wrigley-field-cent-20140529,0,3545640.story

Superstars
Date: April 16, 2009
Location: Phillips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia, Thompson-Boling Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
Attendance: 16,431
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, Todd Grisham, Jim Ross, Matt Striker, Josh Matthews

This is the debut episode of what used to be the flagship show. Of course it wound up being just another show that didn’t even last two years on TV before switching over to the internet but that’s what you get when you’re not Raw or Smackdown. Superstars’ hook was that it had all three rosters competing at the same time, which really isn’t all that thrilling of a concept. The first episode is stacked though with Undertaker making a rare in-ring appearance. Let’s get to it.

Undertaker vs. Matt Hardy

This is when Matt was evil and tried to kill his brother and then got hurt to end his push again. I’m still waiting on Mattitude 2.0. For some reason I believe this was originally announced as Undertaker vs. Shelton Benjamin but they changed it for reasons I don’t remember. Matt gets his head taken off by a right hand to the jaw and the fight heads outside. Undertaker whips him hard into the barricade as this is one sided so far. Back in and Old School connects, sending us to a break.

Back with Undertaker still dominating and getting two after snapping Matt’s neck across the top rope. Hardy escapes the chokeslam and hits a neckbreaker before hammering away. This is right after Wrestlemania XXV so Undertaker’s neck is still messed up after botching the Taker Dive. Undertaker shrugs it off and nails even more right hands to put Matt in the ropes. A chokeslam off the apron is countered with a jawbreaker to give Hardy two.

Off to a front facelock on Undertaker but the big man casually gets to his feet. That’s fine with Matt as he jumps onto Undertaker to crank on the facelock even more. Undertaker shoves him off and scores with a big boot for two. Another big boot and legdrop get two on Matt but Hardy wisely heads outside to avoid another chokeslam attempt. He grabs a chair but just stays on the floor to take the countout. Pretty lame ending.

Rating: C-. Not a bad match but man alive, Matt won’t job to THE UNDERTAKER? I know Matt is a rising star at this point but I don’t think losing to one of the biggest legends on the roster is going to kill his push all that badly. The match was nothing too bad but the ending brings it down a good bit.

Post match Jeff Hardy runs out and throws Matt back inside for a chokeslam.

Clips from Wrestlemania.

Christian vs. Finlay

The winner gets an ECW Title shot at Backlash and this is the final of some competition called the Elimination Chase. Finlay has Horny with him. Christian gets taken down but fights out of the armbar and gets two off his sunset flip out of the corner. Finlay takes him down with a chinlock which goes about as well as the armbar. Back up and Christian hits a top rope cross body, only to have Finlay roll through for two more. A tornado DDT gets two on the Irishman and the Killswitch connects for the pin out of NOWHERE.

Rating: D+. This felt like it went home five minutes earlier than they expected. The ending came out of nowhere and it really felt awkward. Christian winning makes sense but this really did need another few minutes to flesh things out. Also Hornswoggle was shouting from ringside but he couldn’t talk in the future. Makes WWE sense.

They shake hands post match.

Shane McMahon (interviewed by Eve Torres) is ready to get revenge on Legacy for what Randy Orton has done to his family.

Cody Rhodes vs. Shane McMahon

Feeling out process to start until Shane takes over with some quick left hands. Cody fights out of an armbar and bails to the floor as Shane looks like he’s gone fifteen minutes already. Back in and Cody gets his arm cranked on even more, sending him back outside again. This time though Shane goes out the other way and gets a running start off the steps to take Rhodes down with a clothesline.

Shane whips him ribs first into the barricade before we head back inside where Rhodes is just fine. A big right hand knocks Shane back to the floor and we take a break. Back with Cody holding a very weak looking chinlock followed by some knees and elbows to the rubs. We hit the reverse chinlock but Shane stands up and drives Cody into the buckle. A middle rope bulldog gets two on Shane but he fights out of a superplex. Cody dropkicks him out of the air for two as this is going WAY longer than it should. Shane gets sent to the floor but he comes back up with a chair to the ribs for the DQ.

Rating: D-. This was LONG. The match got fourteen minutes and Shane wasn’t exactly the kind of a guy that you want trying to do something like this. It’s not much better when you have Cody Rhodes in there before he’s capable of carrying a match. This McMahons vs. Ortons story just kept going and people stopped caring way before this show. Much like the feud, the match was just more long and uninteresting than bad, which is worse a lot of the time.

Shane hits Coast to Coast to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. Well what the heck was this supposed to be? I mean we have Undertaker (UNDERTAKER!) winning via countout, Christian vs. Finlay, as in the one match that could have gone on for awhile, getting less than five minutes, and Shane McMahon getting fifteen? This was a huge mess and a good microcosm of the disaster that WWE was at this point.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Survivor Series at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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The one on the Network.  He has like four so I have no idea which is which.  This one runs two and a half hours and is REALLY good.  It takes you through the entire Austin story and has Austin looking back on his entire career.  The more I watch and listen to Austin the more in awe I am of how great he was and is to this day.  The stuff from after the shows ended made me want to go get the After The Show DVD.  Well worth checking out if you have the time.  The documentary that is, but the DVD probably is as well.

Main Event
Date: March 11, 2014
Location: Verizon Arena, Little Rock, Arkansas
Commentators: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton

This is a request that I’ve finally gotten to after getting done with those weekly TNA PPVs. I don’t remember why someone requested this but Ambrose is defending the US Title against Mark Henry and AJ Lee is defending against Natalya, so odds are it’s one of those. This is a show I haven’t looked at all that much but you hear good things about it a lot of the time. Let’s get to it.

Opening sequence.

Los Matadores vs. Ryback/Curtis Axel

Before the match we get an inset interview from Axel saying he’s in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, joining Ryback as two of the handful of entrants so far. Ryback throws Diego around to start but Diego comes back with a dropkick and headlock. Diego gets shoved off but stops to shout OLE both in the ring and on the apron. Off to Fernando for a dropkick/legsweep combo for a one count. Ryback misses a jumping seated senton, allowing Fernando to hit a running elbow to the jaw.

Axel comes in for the first time to really crank up the awesome. Fernando grabs a quick hurricanrana but walks into a clothesline for two. The fans are rather silent here for the most part, but to Los Matadores’ credit, the crowd REALLY gets behind Fernando during his heat segment. Off to a chinlock so Ryback can really obviously call spots. Back to Axel for some right hands in the corner as the announcers talk about anything else they can think of.

Axel gets two off a middle rope elbow and we hit another chinlock. Ryback comes back in to miss a splash, drawing Torito up to the apron to play cheerleader. The hot tag brings in Diego to run over both Ryback and Axel. Everything breaks down and Diego comes out of the corner with a headscissors to put Axel down again. Fernando hits a big flip dive to take out Ryback and Torito gets in a shot of his own. The distraction lets Diego get a rollup on Axel for the pin out of nowhere.

Rating: C-. Totally forgettable match here but it wasn’t bad at all. Los Matadores aren’t the worst team in the world, but they’re just so bland with a style that has been done about a million times better before. Axel and Ryback are a decent power/technical team, but all four of these guys are so low on the totem pole that it’s hard to care about them.

Divas Title: AJ Lee vs. Natalya

Nattie made champion AJ tap in a non-title match on Snackdown to set this up. Before the match AJ says she’s bored due to the lack of competition here, but worry not because she’ll beat Natalya again tonight. After some big match intros, Natalya takes it to the mat to start with a headlock. A rollup sends AJ crawling for the ropes and it’s right back to the headlock.

Natalya does the Owen Hart counter to escape a wristlock before cranking on Lee’s leg. AJ gets into the ropes again as they’re in very slow but deliberate mode to start here. Back up and Natalya cranks on an abdominal stretch with the leg lifted as well. AJ slips out but gets dropkicked to the floor as we take a break. Back with AJ getting two off something we didn’t see before putting on a chinlock.

That doesn’t last long as Nattie fights up and tries a slam, only to be countered into the guillotine choke. Natalya can’t slam her down to escape and gets clotheslined down for two. It’s time for the skipping around the ring followed by another wicked clothesline. A running dropkick puts the champion down but she kicks Natalya over and over in the corner to take over again. Back to the guillotine which transitions into a sleeper but Nattie throws AJ down.

The blonde makes her comeback with clotheslines and a hard slam for two of her own. AJ grabs the Black Widow out of nowhere but gets slammed down into Sharpshooter position. That gets countered as well into a cradle for two but the second attempt gets the hold on. Nattie doesn’t sit down on it that well though, allowing Lee to crawl over to the ropes. Tamina gets on the apron and the distraction lets AJ nail the Shining Wizard, setting up the Black Widow for the submission. The referee calmly telling her to “tap whenever you’re ready” hurt the scene a bit.

Rating: B-. The match got a bit repetitive at the end but it’s a good sign that two girls can have a seventeen minute match and make it work this well. The idea of AJ being a better technical wrestler but getting caught by the power worked really well, as did the ways AJ could contort and bend out there.

Natalya cries because of course she does.

We look at Santino and Emma’s first date at WWE catering. Slapstick ensues.

Raw ReBound looks at Daniel Bryan’s Occupy Raw moment.

US Title: Mark Henry vs. Dean Ambrose

Dean is defending and the idea is that he never puts the belt on the line. To be fair, he hardly ever did as champion. This is also a rematch from a recent title shot on Raw. Feeling out process to start with Henry shoving him to the floor and then wrapping Dean’s arm around the ropes. Dean is thrown to the floor again but we have a staredown with the other Shield members. The distraction allows Ambrose to get in a quick dropkick to knock Henry outside.

Back from a break with Dean cranking on a half crab before nailing a middle rope chop block. Another shot to the knee puts Mark down and it’s into the half crab again. Dean opts to just kick Henry a lot and drive in some forearms to the chest. The knee is slammed down onto the mat but Mark pops up and slams Ambrose down off the middle rope to take over.

Some fat man clotheslines are good for two but Henry makes the mistake of going after Rollins. It doesn’t go badly at first, but Henry stops a Vader Bomb to stare at Reigns, allowing Dean to pull him down by the leg. A kneeling Dirty Deeds is good for the pin to retain Ambrose’s title.

Rating: C-. This was fine from a technical standpoint but it wasn’t the best match in the world. Henry is fine as a dragon for Ambrose to slay as I don’t think many people bought him as an actual threat to the belt. It’s always nice to see the title actually being defended though, instead of just being used as a prop.

Overall Rating: C+. For an hour long C show on the Network, this was actually really entertaining stuff. It’s a VERY wrestling heavy show which is a nice change of pace when you usually deal with the angle heavy big shows. It’s nothing you need to see but if you want to see a match get way more time than it would otherwise, this is a good show to check out.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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On the Network. It’s bizarre to hear Warrior talking like a completely sane and rational person about his career. There isn’t a ton of new information or anything, but Warrior sounds far more reasonable and calm than a lot of guys from that era. Yeah he screwed up some over the years and did some selfish things, but it’s not like he’s the only person to ever look out for themselves instead of the company. If you’re a fan of the guy, this will make you smile and realize how RIDICULOUS the Self Destruction DVD was.

In light of the stock nosediving tomorrow, here’s something people seem to be forgetting.The Network is less than three months old.  This isn’t something that they have a path to follow as no wrestling company has done this before.  The Network is going to be around for a LONG time and people are going to watch it.  That’s something else: it’s not a one time purchase.  It’s $10 a month per fan, every month.  That’s a steady stream of money coming into the product, which really is awesome when you get involved with it.

Again, yesterday was a very bad day, but the Network is a long term plan and always has been.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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The business world continues to make me chuckle.  A few notes/thoughts.1. WWE stock is $2 higher than it was at this time last year.

2. About a month or two ago the stock was at I believe an all time high. Stop acting like stock prices are set in stone.

3. Wrestlemania, the Wrestlemania DVD, and the Network going international are coming this year. Methinks that might spark the stocks a bit, seeing as how they do every year.

4. I don’t understand how the deal getting them $40 million more than they had last year can be seen as a bad thing. True it’s not as good as they expected, but under no circumstances can gaining $40 million be seen as a bad thing.

No word on the time out but the average time before resuming physical activity for this surgery is 2-3 months.  Therefore, assuming the company isn’t lying to us (always a possibility), he’ll be lucky to make it back by Summerslam.  I can’t imagine he keeps the title that long without something changing.