The John Report Wrestling Blog

Monday Headlines: Madusa is Out of Her Mind

By Jacob Lindsey

The fact that this is the Headline for today proves that it was really slow news weekend. There was a lot of junk to sift through, but none of it was particularly newsworthy. This bit, though, belongs at the top of the “forgotten ‘star’ trying to hold on to any ounce of celebrity while sacrificing pride and sanity” pile. It also belongs in the “Kurt Angle” file on Twitter, where someone gets on and says stupid stuff because they’re totally insane. In this case, it’s former WWF Women’s Champion Madusa aka Alundra Blayze. I’ll explain after the jump. Read more…

Canton’s Corner: The Wrestling Week in Review – February 4
By John Canton
Follow me on Twitter at @johnreport

Welcome to Canton’s Corner. It was a good week of wrestling on TV this week. I thought Raw was excellent while both Smackdown and TNA Impact Wrestling were above average this week too. I’ll cover all three of those, plus the usual polls, video, Melo Out and other things you’ve come to expect from Canton’s Corner. It’s the Super Bowl on Sunday. If you follow me on Twitter you know I’m a huge NFL fan, even more than I am a wrestling fan. Before I get to the wrestling part of the column, I need to share my pick.

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On The Aire: Selective Hearing
By Mike Aires

Last Friday’s column, besides being about awesome and horrible characters, featured my picks for the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.  I was fairly close on my predictions for the entire show, minus a couple of minor things here and there.  Cena and Kane going at it outside of the ring (right by a TJR sign, no less) to a Double Disqualification was fairly predictable.  The World Heavyweight Championship went about as planned, as did the WWE Championship match.  The Rumble, however, was a big freaking curve ball.

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Worst Royal Rumble Ever?
By Matt Seagull

I’ve been watching professional wrestling for more than 20 years now, and my favorite night of the year has always been the Royal Rumble. I look forward to the Rumble like a child looks forward to Christmas, mostly because like Christmas, it only comes once a year. In an age where a Last Man Standing match may be as common as a six man tag, I cherish a match that comes along so rarely. From a writing standpoint, the Rumble kicks off the Road to Wrestlemania, so the main event matches start their build around this time (which has unfortunately been made moot this year with the main event being announced a year in advance). But most of all, I love the Rumble so much because no matter how much I complain about the creative direction of the company, the Rumble is the one show that is impossible to mess up. Or so I thought…

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WWE Royal Rumble
St. Louis, Missouri
January 29, 2012
By John Canton (Twitter @johnreport)

They aired a video package hyping that the winner of the Royal Rumble gets to go to WrestleMania. Lots of people do, but for now we should only believe the winner does.

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WWE Royal Rumble 2012 Preview
By John Canton, Andrew Johnson & Christian Michael

John Canton: I’ve always loved the Royal Rumble pay per view. I showed that love last year when I recapped every Royal Rumble match. The concept of the match is wonderful. Even if you think you know what might happen, there’s always a very good chance that something crazy will happen. I didn’t think Cena would win in 2008 or Edge in 2010 because they both made surprise returns. Could there be a surprise winner this year? You never know. The sad thing about the Rumble is that the winner doesn’t really get to “main event” WrestleMania anymore (especially this year), but it’s still one of my favorite matches and I know I’m going to enjoy it like I do every year. Right now there are only four announced matches. I’d expect some kind of midcard match to be added as a buffer to some of the big ones on the card, but I’m not going to guess what they will be.

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Thursday Headlines: John Cena’s Angry Face

This week’s episode of Raw was a good one. We got some great CM Punk/John Laurinaitis interaction, another fantastic Chris Jericho segment in which he finally spoke, and an excellent video package promoting the Royal Rumble. All in all, it was a very good go-home show (a show that promotes an upcoming pay-per-view, for all you non-wrestling nerds). But there was one segment that stood out for all the wrong reasons, and ended up being a disappointment. Of course, I’m talking about John Cena’s “angry face” segment.

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The John Report: The WWE Raw Deal 01/23/12
By John Canton
Follow me on Twitter at @johnreport

Live from Phoenix, Arizona this is the Raw Deal…

We get the usual intro. Isn’t it time to get a new theme song? I’m so sick of Nickelback. I’m sure a lot of people are, but in Canada it’s even worse since they come from this country. I’ve had people write me about a lack of pyro at WWE shows. I’ve read that they made an internal decision to cut back on the amount of pyro they use. It’s a money thing.

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There comes a day each week that we writers at TJR get nervous about. For Jacob Lindsey, it’s Mondays. For Thomas Briggs, it’s Thursdays. For me, it’s now on Fridays. It’s Headlines day. We think to ourselves, “Man, I really hope something awesome happened in the past 24 hours. That or I hope someone did or said something stupid.” Sometimes we are blessed to report fantastic news. Maybe somebody we like is getting a push up the card. Maybe somebody appeared in a major media segment or won an award. Maybe something so great happened that it reminds us all why we are fans and why we love this industry. Read more…

Chris Jericho is Awesome… and other important matters.

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Canton’s Corner: The Wrestling Week in Review – January 14
By John Canton
Follow me on Twitter at @johnreport

Welcome to Canton’s Corner. We’ve got the usual happening this week with some thoughts on Raw & Smackdown plus the poll, the random video and the twitter ten where I answer your wrestling related questions. I don’t have a section for TNA this week. I was one of the six people that watched their PPV, which was so poorly booked and did nothing good for anybody in the company. I realize the last 45 minutes of Impact were good with two rematches, but I couldn’t handle more TNA in a week. To the few that care about my TNA thoughts, they will return next week. Let’s get to it.

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The Midweek Breakdown: 10 Random Thoughts
by Cody Dodson

Hello TJR faithful and welcome to another edition of the Midweek Breakdown. I am your eleventh favorite columnist and your host, Cody Dodson. Today I’m going to do something that I like to do every once in a while and just talk about some random thoughts I have regarding what’s going on in WWE. Most weeks I like to take one or two topics and take an in-depth look at them. This week, I’m going to share some quick thoughts on a lot of different topics. There’s been a lot going on, so let’s get started.

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