The one where his opponent will be announced this week.  Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come.Smackdown is going live two weeks from today and for years it’s been a dead, nothing show with matches airing again the next week on Raw with no mention of them already happening on Thursday.  By airing big news like this on Smackdown, WWE is starting to get some buzz going on Smackdown where it might be worth seeing again.  Do that multiple times and people might actually start watching.

Ah the joys of 80s WWF.I know this is something that’s been beaten to death but my goodness it’s amazing how much more natural Jesse and Gorilla were on commentary.  It feels like two people having a chat while watching a show.  They get in catchphrases, plug stuff and talking about the matches while also sounding like they’re professionals.  I can’t remember the last time I heard something like this without going back to some JR and King days.  It really shouldn’t be pushing ten years since I can remember natural commentary but that’s what’s happened.

In case you haven’t been paying attention this week, the big story is Seth Rollins tearing his ACL and being forced to vacate the WWE World Title. This has set up a tournament at Survivor Series 2015 for the vacant belt and there’s a really popular theory out there about the result. Here’s something to keep in mind about it.

So the theory is that Roman Reigns turned corporate/heel and wins the tournament, possibly beating Ambrose in the finals. That’s the theory I’m going with (meaning it’s likely wrong) and so are a lot of other people because it makes a lot of sense. However, this brings up a problem.

With so many people predicting it, don’t think that it’s a bad idea. Assuming it happens, don’t think that it’s stupid booking just because people guessed it was going to happen. This is a good idea, no matter how many people figure it out because it opens the door for a lot of stories and sets up a bunch of matches down the line. Reigns isn’t great as a face but imagine him with that smug grin saying something like “You knew it was happening one day and now it’s happening whether you like it or not.”

For some reason, people think predictable is bad. NXT is one of the most predictable shows in wrestling but it’s also entertaining because they don’t do crazy things just to fool the audience. As usual, I’ll go back to Wrestlemania XIV: would you have Austin lose to Michaels and not win the title just because everyone knew he was winning that night? Of course not, because it would be a horrible decision. People knew it was coming and it kicked off some of the most profitable times the company and business have ever seen.

Just because you’ve figured out the ending doesn’t make it stupid. That’s like saying a mystery isn’t a good story because you read the clues properly and solved it. It means you’re thinking logically and picking up on the clues like you were supposed to. Keep that in mind as we head to Survivor Series.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B015IN12I2

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

We often hear about Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle having the greatest rookie years of all time as they both won the World Title and the King of the Ring among other accolades.  As great as that is, there’s another name that deserves to be on this short list.Yokozuna.  Think about this for a second.  He debuted around Survivor Series 1992, wins the 1993 Royal Rumble (in very dominant fashion), wins the WWF World Title at Wrestlemania IX, then squashes Hulk Hogan at King of the Ring 1993 to send him out of the company and holds the title for nine months.  If you go a bit beyond the rookie year, Yokozuna was in four World Title matches in his first two Wrestlemanias, which is never going to be topped.

Lesnar and Angle definitely had better careers, but Yokozuna deserves to be on the list for greatest rookie years in company history.

You know what move didn’t really do jack?Ric Flair’s Figure Four.  Take a look at how he won his World Titles (some recognized, some unrecognized.  Don’t start with the “IT’S MORE THAN 16 TIMES” stuff again).

WCW – 1 – Pin with feet on the ropes

WCW – 2 – Rollup

WCW – 3 – Rollup

WCW – 4 – Brass knuckles

WCW – 5 – Shoe to the face

WCW – 6 – Pin in the figure four

WCW – 7 – Small package

WCW – 8 – Awarded title

WWF – 1 – Won Royal Rumble

WWF – 2 – Pin in the Figure Four

NWA – 1 – Pin after Dusty Rhodes collapsed

NWA – 2 – Cross body

NWA – 3 – Rollup

NWA – 4 – Pin in the Figure Four

NWA – 5 – Pin after a ram into the cage

NWA – 6 – Small package

NWA – 7 – Rollup

NWA – 8 – Pin in the Figure Four

Yeah Flair won a few with it via pin, but he never won a World Title with the Figure Four via a traditional submission.  However, when you think of Flair, you instantly think of the Figure Four, despite it almost never winning a major match.  It says a lot about the way you can make something big just by talking about it and that you don’t always have to see everything to believe it.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B015IN12I2

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

I’ve been watching a lot of Raw from 1997 lately and it’s such a different way of doing things.

Coming into Survivor Series, there is almost no card announced. You can see so many of the matches ready, but more often than not, the matches are all just announced at once. In other words, no long promos to set up a match and no contract signings. The matches are made by the powers that be, who actually do stuff when the cameras aren’t rolling.

Also back in the day, you would see a lot of title matches just announced for the next week. For instance Ken Shamrock gets a World Title shot against Bret Hart. When was this made? Sometime during the week. Who made it? The WWF brass. No promo, no real reason for it, and we get a nice match as a result. In other words, the company didn’t take you by the hand and explain everything to you like a four year old. I get the idea of wanting to explain stuff, but it could be as simple of an explanation as “Shamrock has been on a roll recently so the WWF has granted him a title opportunity.” Three seconds, point made, move on.

Looking at why this rematch with Undertaker is being better received than Lesnar’s other rematch.

One of the keys to Brock Lesnar is spacing out his matches as well as you can. Since he’s been back, Brock has had the following matches:

John Cena – Extreme Rules 2012

HHH – Summerslam 2012

HHH – Wrestlemania XXIX

HHH – Extreme Rules 2013

CM Punk – Summerslam 2013

Big Show – Royal Rumble 2014

Undertaker – Wrestlemania XXX

John Cena – Summerslam 2014

John Cena – Night of Champions 2014

John Cena, Seth Rollins – Royal Rumble 2015

Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns – Wrestlemania XXXI

Kofi Kingston – Beast in the East

Seth Rollins – Battleground 2015

Now, and of course this isn’t an exact science, the two times that people seemed to be getting annoyed with Lesnar’s booking was during the HHH trilogy which never stopped and the Cena feud. The Cena feud is where I want to focus though, as people didn’t seem to mind Cena getting a rematch, but moreso that he got so many in a row.

That’s the key to most of Brock’s feuds and the reason the Undertaker rematch is being fairly well received: it’s been a year and a half since the first match, so Brock has had a chance to fight other people. Brock is still a featured attraction and we want to see him against a variety of opponents. Of course he’s going to have rematches, but you need tp space them out instead of just doing them all in a row. Imagine Rock vs. Austin on three straight pay per views. Sure the matches would be great, but waiting two years instead of four weeks was a huge improvement.

That being said, I’d love to see some extra time between regular feuds too. So many title matches would be better received if we hadn’t seen it just a month earlier.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of NXT Reviews: The Full Sail Years Volume I at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011T13PV4

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

This is one of those things that wrestling fans will never seem to understand but I’ll keep trying to explain it.

Something that fans don’t seem to understand is you can appreciate something while not caring about it. Yesterday it was announced that New Japan will continue to have its TV show airing on AXS TV. I saw the headline about it and didn’t react. Why didn’t I react? Because I don’t care about New Japan. I’m well aware and completely agree with the fact that it’s some of if not the best in ring action in the world today, but I don’t have a connection to it. I’ll watch a New Japan show a year or two at most, but I have no desire to watch any more than that.

Now, does that mean I don’t know or get wrestling? I certainly wouldn’t think so. All it means is that I don’t care about New Japan. To put it into mainstream sports terms, at the moment, the St. Louis Cardinals are one of if not the best teams in Major League Baseball. However, I don’t care about that team. Instead, I care about the Cleveland Indians, who really aren’t that good. However, I care about the Indians because they’re my team.

I care about WWE more than New Japan because I’ve watched WWE since before I can remember. They’re my team. I’m well aware that New Japan does things better than WWE, but that doesn’t mean I want to watch them all the time. I’ll watch them occasionally if I’m in the mood to, but it’s not like WWE where I want to see every thing they do. Me not wanting to watch New Japan doesn’t mean I don’t understand or love wrestling. It means I have different taste than other fans and that’s ok.

And that’s not good.

Something I didn’t get around to reporting last week was that the ratings for Raw were a disaster (come on guys you can watch even though your boss is gone). Here’s the thing though: it really isn’t hard to figure out why. The problem is, and I hate to admit it, the Authority wasn’t around. WWE has pretty much made it clear that if they’re not around then Raw is basically a glorified Smackdown.

Yeah stuff might happen, but it’s either wrapped up later in the night and barely mentioned again, or completely erased by the Authority. The show has turned into everyone dancing around to entertain HHH and Stephanie as they get to ignore almost all character motivation and logic for the sake of keeping themselves looking good.

The fans know that if the Authority isn’t around, big stuff isn’t happening and they’re much better off going to bed or doing something else and checking the results later, because three hours of mediocre wrestling (and a John Cena match), uninteresting stories and Rollins trying to figure out if he’s his own man or needs to buy the rest of the team presents to save him from some big bad isn’t enough to hook you in all night. WWE can change this line of thinking pretty easily, but it’s been proven before that they’re not very interested in getting Stephanie and HHH off TV that easily and I can’t imagine it happens anytime soon.

I was looking back at an old NXT review from December 11, 2013.  Here’s my take on Ascension back then.

There’s really no one left for Ascension to beat in NXT but they would die on the main roster. The skills are there, but can you imagine Cole trying to talk about these guys? They would be buried by the commentary so badly that they’d be lucky to get a win over Los Matadores.

Have they even beaten Los Matadores?  I don’t believe so.