KB Answers Wrestling Questions

[Richard Blonoff]

Ah. Makes sense.

Some of the arguments in the "Wrestler of the Year" thread got me wondering, can you recall any two guys who are typically considered top workers who have such blah chemistry as AJ and KO? The only two that come to mind for me are Rock and Undertaker, but if I am recalling correctly most of their encounters weren't one on one and Taker wasn't as polished in the AE as he was later in his career.

 

[klunderbunker]

Yeah they were terrible.

Austin and Undertaker never quite clicked, though they did have a good one at In Your House XV.

The Hardys never quite did, but I think that's more people not wanting to see them fight. Orton and HHH is a bad example too.

 

[Alex]

Out of the current group of Bullet Club guys who are actually worth a damn.

As far as I know it's Cody, Omega, The Bucks and Marty Scrull which seems like a solid amount

 

[klunderbunker]

The Guerrilas are fun to watch for the old school wild man team. They're rather fun to watch.

 

[#MrScissorsKick]

Sorry, I Know this isn't wrestling related, but who do you have winning the CFP Championship?

 

[klunderbunker]

Bama, unfortunately.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

The most viewed video on WWE's Youtube channel is some random battle royal from Smackdown in 2011. Any particular reason why?

 

[klunderbunker]

Battle royals are cool.

 

[Vageena Hertz]

Your best rumble match? Do you think Austins rumble record will, ever be matched or broken?

 

[klunderbunker]

1990 or 1992.

And yeah, I'd be shocked if Cena or Reigns doesn't get there.

 

[Барбоса]

1990 or 1992.

Was thinking about this earlier - the 1990 Rumble might be my favourite match to watch.

Real talent pool up front; the monsters in the middle with Andre and Earthquake; Warrior's arrival; Iron Man run from Dibiase; Hogan-Warrior collision; Warrior's elimination; Rude/Perfect ganging up on Hogan; Hulk-Up and win; all wrapped up in Jesse's commentary.

 

[klunderbunker]

Yep. You can feel Patterson's layout working like a charm.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

So if EC3 does leave TNA, is he back in WWE? Surely they don't bring the same Johnny Curtis (that was his name, right?) back? Even if he comes back with that name, he's gotta be an EC3 type character (minus all the Dixie ties).

 

[klunderbunker]

Curtis is Fandango. Carter was Derrick Bateman.

And I'd hope so. He's not the biggest star in the world but there's no reason to start from scratch with him when he has a character that works quite well. Also Ethan Carter III (or whatever) is much better than Derrick Bateman, which sounds like an accountant.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

This is true Better than Dolph Ziggler, which sounds like an awful porn star name.

 

[klunderbunker]

It really does. But naming someone after a big monster (like a hulk), their mentality (he wrestles like a savage!) or a big city in their home state (the capital of Texas is Austin) has never been a success. Nah, we need to go with someone who might do your taxes next year.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

There has been a general shift towards more realistic names it seems. Even Bray Wyatt, who is certainly a colorful character, has a name anyone could have.

 

[klunderbunker]

There has been, likely for the sake of copyrighting. Rather annoying, but who wants to make millions off a top star anyway?

 

[Da Prophet]

After watching WK12 and seeing how NJPW are just sticking with Okada, it got me thinking about Roman Reigns. How big of an issue has the stop/start booking with him been as the top guy? I've listened to old school shows from the Observer and you get moments where Alvarez flat out says that the Cena experiment has failed and Kurt Angle should get the belt. Of course, they didn't. Cena beat everyone, then when he dropped the belt he won it right back and tapped Triple H at WrestleMania. When he dropped it again, Cena won it back and held the belt for an entire year.

You've stated repeatedly, and I agree, that the big problem since Brock Lesnar won the belt has been that we all know where it's heading. Nothing matters about Lesnar right now because he has a date with Reigns for the title, no matter how over someone gets or what they do, none of it matters because Reigns has to beat Lesnar at Mania for the belt. Wouldn't this have been better if they just did it THREE years ago? If they wanted to go with Reigns than they should've went with Reigns full speed ahead. Not have him win the title three times in like four months.

 

[klunderbunker]

That's part of it, but another problem was Reigns not being ready back then. The problem comes down to the leaking of Reigns being the chosen one. It makes you feel like you're wasting your time because nothing else matters until Reigns gets the big, decisive win (I think we're up to try #4 at this point) and everyone loves him.

But yeah, now they're kind of stuck as he's already had that big moment and we're just killing time until we get to his next big one and nothing else matters in between.

 

[A11oftheLights]

But there is a part of the crowd that is very vocal and wont accept Reigns no matter what so is there any point trying to give reigns his big moment? Because we've seen them pop for his spots over and over but just refuse to just admit that reigns is good enough.

Why dont they just cut their losses and make reigns the big heel that rollins, styles, ambrose and balor have to conquer to become champion? They have a talented enough roster to fill out a main event scene for the next 5 years easily, if they just took some actual care in booking a show from top to bottom

 

[klunderbunker]

Vince demands it pretty much. Really that's about it.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

This is kind of a dumb question, but I stick to what I know best.

In Your House 6 (quick aside, how great were these back in the day?), Shawn vs. Owen had a particular sequence where the two were trading headlock variations. Shawn gets a side headlock and Owen bounces him off the ropes. To avoid hitting the ropes a second time, Shawn grabs a handful of hair, before slapping the hold back on. Hebner calls the illegal hair pull and demands Shawn break the hold. Shawn complies. He quickly breaks the hold by throwing his arms out, releasing the headlock, then immediately slaps the hold back on. Owen throws his own hands up quizzically and Hebner then demands Shawn rebreak the hold, all while Shanw shrugs and presumably put on that grin that only 90s HBK could pull off and still get cheered.

When I was done laughing at this, I realized this was clever as hell. Shawn complied with the rules, he technically broke the hold, but did so in a way that allowed him to keep his advantage. Why don't we see more stuff like this? I mean aside from Cena putting on the STF, only for a rope break and then Cena pulling his opponent back to the center of the ring and putting the hold back on.

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

As we currently stand heading into the Rumble what would you predict the two World Title matches at Mania look like this year?

 

[klunderbunker]

This is kind of a dumb question, but I stick to what I know best.

In Your House 6 (quick aside, how great were these back in the day?),

Not very, though the concept was good and the main events usually worked.

Shawn vs. Owen had a particular sequence where the two were trading headlock variations. Shawn gets a side headlock and Owen bounces him off the ropes. To avoid hitting the ropes a second time, Shawn grabs a handful of hair, before slapping the hold back on. Hebner calls the illegal hair pull and demands Shawn break the hold. Shawn complies. He quickly breaks the hold by throwing his arms out, releasing the headlock, then immediately slaps the hold back on. Owen throws his own hands up quizzically and Hebner then demands Shawn rebreak the hold, all while Shanw shrugs and presumably put on that grin that only 90s HBK could pull off and still get cheered.

When I was done laughing at this, I realized this was clever as hell. Shawn complied with the rules, he technically broke the hold, but did so in a way that allowed him to keep his advantage. Why don't we see more stuff like this? I mean aside from Cena putting on the STF, only for a rope break and then Cena pulling his opponent back to the center of the ring and putting the hold back on.

It used to be done more often. Now though it might look like someone is trying to win a match and that might not be as presentable as WWE would like.

As we currently stand heading into the Rumble what would you predict the two World Title matches at Mania look like this year?

Reigns vs. Lesnar and Styles vs. Nakamura.