The John Report Wrestling Blog

Friday Headlines: 2012 – The Year of the Pay-Per-View

WWE sure likes to change their PPV schedule around, don’t they? The past few weeks have seen several changes to the 2012 lineup, and this week has been no different. After Money In The Bank was replaced with TLC and TLC was replaced with Bragging Rights and Bragging Rights was replaced by Brodus Clay Cooks A Tuna Melt: LIVE, it would appear that we have the finalized* schedule available to us. Check it out:

*Not actually finalized. Summerslam to be moved to a date in February.

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OTA Presents: My Top 10 Royal Rumble Moments
By Mike Aires

What up, Aireheads? Welcome to 2012!  After a somewhat slow news week, the first Raw started off with a bang seeing Chris Jericho return and basically have every fan in the world do exactly what he wanted them to.  But you are going to read too many things about a guy who didn’t say a single word this week that I figured you might want to focus on something else:  The Royal Rumble.  The 25^th anniversary of the Rumble is fast approaching, so what better time to discuss my favorite moments from past Rumbles?  Now, with every Top 10, I remind everyone that this is my own personal views.  Due to this fact, plus the fact that I didn’t start watching the WWE until later in my childhood, there will be more new moments than old.

So what moments make it?  How many non-royal rumble matches make it?  Let’s find out.

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Ladder Match 2: Crash and Burn DVD Review – Disc 1
By Cody Dodson

In honor of Sunday’s TLC pay-per-view event, I thought we would take a look down memory lane at the letter “L” in that acronym. I was out doing some Christmas shopping and came across the Ladder Match 2 DVD, so I got myself a little gift. I’ll be doing a review of Disc 1 for this column, which takes a look at some ladder matches from the past up until the year 2000. There’s a ton of content on this DVD, so let’s not waste any time and get started. I should note that this column would be insanely long if I attempted to do a play-by-play of each match. Instead, I’ll give some more general thoughts for each one, point out key moments, and tell you why I gave it the rating I did.

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The 2011 WWE Johnny Awards are coming two Monday’s from now on December 19th. On Friday the first poll went up for Best Wrestler and it looks like there is a runaway winner. Now we move onto best feud.

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 Hello you princes of Maine, you kings of New England. I know it’s been a while since we’ve last spoke, but I needed some time away from the world of pro-wrestling. The past seven days have been full of soul searching, mini-pizza rolls, and Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time. Now that I have once again conquered the water temple, I am recharged and ready to take on anything life throws my way. Last night I fired up the illegal stream pay-per-view… machine (?) and spent the night watching WWE’s Hell In The Cell. A few thoughts after the jump…

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Canton’s Corner: The Live Smackdown Perspective – September 17
By John Canton
Follow me on Twitter at @johnreport

This past Tuesday night in Toronto, I had the privilege of attending the “Edge Appreciation Night” edition of Smackdown. In this week’s edition of Canton’s Corner I’ll write about that experience. It’s not a recap of the show. It’s more about the atmosphere, some tips for those that don’t know what to look for at shows and plenty about the post show celebration in honor of Edge. As always, though, first we have to look at last week’s poll and set up a new one for this week.

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Smacked Up!
Written by Christian Michael

Toronto, Canada are you ready for the Smack?

It’s Edge Appreciation Night so who else did you expect to open the show than the Rated R Superstar? Edge lists all of the things he misses about WWE including that his theme music doesn’t play when he walks into a room. I think everyone should have their own theme music. Wouldn’t it be cool if when you come up for dinner a really awesome song hits before chowing down on some corn on the cob? Anyway, the Intercontinental Champion, Cody Rhodes decides to interrupt the proceedings. Cody says he thought Edge was above pandering to the crowd and thinks Edge is bitter. He then goes off on some insane rant that begins by saying last time he saw Edge, Edge walked out of WrestleMania as World Heavyweight Champion while Cody was wallowing in tragedy. Didn’t Cody win his match at WrestleMania? Thought so. Cody hands Edge a bag but doesn’t want Edge to wear it. He wants Edge to take it home so he’s reminded that Cody is the new face of SmackDown. Edge says that if Cody is the face of SmackDown the show needs the bag much more than he does. Edge says he’s going to leave because if he doesn’t he’ll fall asleep in the ring. Edge does indeed walk. Cody stays and starts pointing out people at ringside that need to be bagged. A bagged fan punches Cody. Where are the Mounties (this is Canada)? They don’t come because the man in the bag is Ted DiBiase. He takes Cody in the ring hits him with Dream Street. Read more…

Canton’s Corner: Raw House Show, SD, TNA PPV, 9/11 – September 10
By John Canton
Follow me on Twitter at @johnreport

Welcome to Canton’s Corner. This week I’ll be writing about my Raw house show experience from Saturday, this Friday’s Smackdown and for TNA I’ll write about Sunday’s No Surrender PPV. I’ll also have some thoughts on the anniversary of 09/11 and how it affected those of us that watch WWE programming on a regular basis. I did the Raw Deal on Tuesday like I do every week plus my 20 WWE Ideas column on Wednesday. I really enjoyed writing that one. I got a ridiculous amount of feedback that I’m still replying to as best I can. If you emailed me and I haven’t written back don’t worry I will do so in the next day or two. Let’s get started with the polls.

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A few months back if you had asked me if Sin Cara’s WWE career was going well, I might have just shrugged while I finished my Orange Julius. While never being a particularly stand-out performer since his debut, he’s never done anything that has made me think he couldn’t get better. He had the skill, the experience, and the favor of the boss’s son-in-law, so I didn’t see anything that could really stand in his way. That is until the Anti-Monitor showed up and gave him steroids, and Sheamus power bombed him out of continuity.

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On the Aire

Written by Mike Aires

Leading up to WWE’s Pay-Per-View of Extreme Pillow Fights…err…Rules, we have been welcoming Mike “The Miz” Mizanin and Adam “Edge” Copeland into our homes as reigning brand champions.  Seeing Edge with a heavyweight championship belt around his waist was not an odd sight, as he is a multi-time champion.  The Miz, however, had been carrying his first title reign for almost a half of a year, and a fresh sight in an increasingly stale taste of a main event card on Raw.  Then this past week came and went, and it’s amazing how much things have changed. Read more…

Note from John: This was written before Del Rio was drafted to Raw.
Letters to Vinny Mac: Christian
By Thomas Briggs

Dear Vince McMahon,
Give Christian the World Heavyweight Championship.

Did I just cause you to spit your coffee out? Sorry about that, those stains are tough to get out. But stick with me here, I think I’m onto something. With Edge retiring this past week, it’s becoming abundantly obvious that the WWE lacks the star power it once possessed. That’s partially a result of lackluster talent, but it’s just as much a reflection of an inability to properly push promising talent. And because you call the shots Vince, that’s on you. Sure there have been a couple of breakout stars like The Miz and CM Punk, but just as many talented youngsters are left to flounder in mediocrity. Sheamus and Jack Swagger? Seemingly abandoned. John Morrison? Held back due to personal issues.

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London, England are you ready for the Smack?

Cody Rhodes comes out to the ring to start the show. He has a paper bag in his hand. There are three men on the outside of the ring with a shopping cart full of paper bags. Cody says that while he and Rey Mysterio both wear masks they wear them for different reasons. He wears one for protection and Rey wears one to hide himself. Cody rips on the fans and then has his assistants hand out the paper bags to the fans. He wants the fans to wear the bags to hide their imperfections or at least until he beats Mysterio tonight. Here comes Rey and we are set for action. Read more…