What can I say? I think satisfied is a good word to describe what i’m feeling. Why am I satisfied? The last few months the WWE have put out a phenomenal product and I do my utter best to watch the episodes of RAW and Smackdown as soon as possible. Being from Ireland, it is a little harder to watch it with the time zones, oh well. We can safely say that WWE are on the right track. We as fans, have something to look forward to 4-6 hours a week (If you watch NXT and Superstars too). One can argue the ratings haven’t improved that brilliantly, but they are pretty steady, except one or two weeks when other big events are on. 2011 indeed, has been a good year for WWE, so lets take a look through some of the wrestlers/feuds etc that have put WWE ”Back on Track”.
CM Punk vs. The Establishment
What did CM Punk do? He stepped up and expressed to all of us with his REAL feelings about WWE when he was given time to talk about what he wanted. He made WWE ‘fun’ again. He was a self righteous heel now turned tweener. His character was interesting as it was before his shoot promo and all that, now as a tweener, I find him more interesting. Just hearing him talk with what seems to be more freedom on the MIC, is just awe-inspiring. As the weeks went on, Triple H became involved in his whole new direction of the company, stirring Vince off camera, at least for now. And, Triple H’s new role was due to Punk’s voice of the voiceless angle. Vince, at the moment, is down and out. Lets just say, i’m sure its not the last we seen of Vince McMahon. Back to Triple H. With him playing this role as the COO , it was such a shock, I was not expecting him to come out and tell Vince he had to go, from the company he built, was shocking. I was shocked it happened this soon. Anyway, Triple H is making Punk look like a good old asshole at the moment which is what Punks schtick is all about, exposing the real asshole in the situation by “pushing” them. Bringing in Nash and John Laurenitis, is really interesting. It’s fresh. It’s like watching another Stone Cold being reborn, perhaps you can argue Punk isn’t that far yet, but this is in the early stages of a new direction for WWE. It’s exiting, unpredictable, fun really. It leaves us most weeks with, what will happen next?
Sheamus
I have been proud, and a great admirer of the Celtic warrior, fella. Why? It’s not everyday someone from your homeland becomes a WWE superstar, especially as big as Sheamus has become. WWE did such an excellent job with him. They pretty much got him over with the fans for being a heel for around a year and a half. Sheamus is actually a really easy going guy, so him playing a face is natural to him. One thing I know, i’m going to be looking forward to seeing Sheamus over the course of the next year.
Stephanie McMahon
Stephanie is awesome, glad she is playing the odd role here and there. Oh yea, she is sexy too. But, you already knew that!
Alberto Del Rio
I think Alberto Del Rio is one of few wrestlers in the company that have the full package. He has good lucks, great MIC skills, good in-ring ability, has got a really interesting gimmick. He is simply a joy to watch. The kind of performer you love to boo. WWE, if you book him right these next few months; a legend is in the making. I feel strongly about this, he really has some great potential.
Daniel Bryan
I’m finding Bryan interesting. I think he needs to have a good long feud with Tyson Kidd. They seem to be feuding him with Sin Cara, which will be fine. Then, i’m hoping that they will indeed feud him with Kidd, not just one or two matches, but two or three PPV’s. If they did something like they did with Matt Hardy and MVP in an ”I’m better than you” feud like we’ve seen a couple few years back. That would be awesome. Both of them are phenomenal wrestlers. I like to refer him to as this generations Bob Backlund, bland but brilliant and when a heel turn happens it will be relevant. I may not of seen much of Bob Backlund, but as a wrestling fan, you gotta know its history. Bryan is missing something, though, perhaps a manager? He does need a manager. I think someone like Jimmy Hart, would be good for him.
Good ole JR is back!
When Triple H announced JR’s return, to me, it was a big star to return. Sure, he doesn’t wrestle, but when your’re at home on your sofa, you NEED someone announcing as if you were actually wrestling in that match. I think JR is hands down, the best announcer of all time. Certainly in my generation anyway. Remember the match of the year WWE pulled off? That was missing one thing for fans watching at home, and that was JR’s commentary. That was Punk vs. Cena at Money in the Bank.
Christians adequate heel turn
Why was it adequate? Lets see, it brought out the very best in him. What was the best thing that could of happened to Christian when he won the belt the first time? For him to lose it 3 days later. Why? This, 100% undoubted shocked the life out of me when I found out. Never, have I been shocked in a long time in anyway when this happened. My initial reaction was that I was shocked. Then I did become a little angry, then I realized, he is gonna become probably the biggest heel in the company. Since he was slowly becoming a heel. This is something I wanted to happen for a long time. He’s had a long, but good feud with Orton. It did get little uninteresting at points, but their matches were superb. The wrestling in their matches were just as good as Cena and Punk.
Miz/Truth
Now, I usually refer to Miz as ”Twat Face”, but I will be honest in saying, he’s been doing pretty good lately. Especially with R-truth. Maybe Truth is making him look good? I don’t know, anyway, iv’e found the duo to be entertaining at its finest. Their promos are pretty good and both are little half over with the crowd. I think Truth is standing out more than Miz, though. The guy is freaking hilarious. It’s a part of the show when your waiting for a funny moment, Truth delivers. Before, I found Miz an annoying, boring piece of shit, now he’s working well with truth. Would you agree little Jimmy? Don’t make me say Ninja Please!
Mark Henry
Iv’e always liked Henry. Don’t recall ever hating him or disliking him. He is the pissed of black man, trying to capture the world heavyweight championship, which in fact, I think he will capture and deserves to get. I Don’t think he’ll win it at Night of Champions, maybe a PPV or two after that. Also, facing Orton, is new and fresh. They’re building him up very well in promos and advertising him well in video packages. Keep this up WWE!
The Build up to Rock and Cena
When the two announced the match for Wrestlemania 28, I was delirious. It was so smart for WWE to do that. I think I referred to WWE as ”Marketing Genius’s”. What I like about this, I knew they weren’t going to be going at each other every week until WM 28, the odd dig at each other every now and then, I knew this was going to happen, so it’s exciting. I once complained about Rock by using his powerful words that he was never going to leave us again, which he hasn’t appeared in months. But, then I realized, the less appearances he makes, the more powerful his character is. On the road to Wrestlemania it’s going to get real interesting. The best way they could hype up wrestlemania, is if they hype up each other. Let us know how great the other is. Then when it comes to wrestlemania, not many wrestling fans won’t want to see that match. It’s going to be epic.
Well guys, that’s all I had time for this week. It was enjoyable writing this, I hoped you enjoyed it. We’ve had a shitty week for comments, we hope that you can reply. Site numbers are higher than ever, strange that comments are down. This took a long time to write, so I would really appreciate it if you liked this column, to reply to it. Now take care…..you know the rest!
Thanks for reading.
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Ringsidehustle.com 
What a great blog.I have to say that WWE 2011 had good and bad moments. It’s PG and that sucks but it seems like WWE is getting out of it.I mean is making it interesing. Before Capitol Of Punishment i was guessing right every single match. At Summer Slam 2011 I didn’t guess a single one. And that’s great. I see Cm Punk the future Stone Cold and we can really see Cm Punk Vs Stone Cold at Wrestlemania.Cm Punk as tweener is fun to watch.He always had great mic skills and I love watching his promos. Sheamus is one of the fastes rising superstars. He has great wrestling skills and he is great face and heel but he needs to work on his mic sklills.I never liked Alberto Del Rio. I mean he has great mic and ring skills but i really hate him. Daniel Bryan started as heel and i think he could cash in at wresltemania as heel. But WWE sriously needs to fix his gimmick he is like a nerd and it won’t fit to be world heavyweight champion. Christian was really screwed. I mea winning the WH title and losing it very soon. That suck. Christian is a great main heel and he has proven this for a long time now.He deserves the WH title.The Miz was great in WWE. As heel and as WWE Champion. I remember one Raw that he said in his promo that he will be champion again. Well i believe that he will be the new tag team champion after NOC and i believe he deserves to be champion. WWE has been taken R-Truth more seriously as heel. And he is ver intertaining as heel. Hope Awesome Truth win at NOC.At the main thing- Cena Vs Rock At The Main Event WM 28. I hate that WWE arent building there feud match. It’s good that Rock will be at Survivor Series and he will have match. Can’t wait untill Wrestlemania. It will be awesome. I think Rock will win but if it’s for the WWE title Cena will win
I Give 8,5 For WWE In The Year 2011
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Thanks for feedback.
I hear a lot of people blaming PG rating. I just gotta say, the ONLY time WWE wasn’t PG was during the Attitude Era. It’s really the demand that WWE creative have to put out their best product. If few fans are watching WWE, there is not much point in wasting really great storylines until fans are coming back to watch it. Now, what WWE are doing now and over the next few months, is to try and get fans back into it, it seems every angle WWE are doing, they will lead to something bigger. So what WWE are focusing on now, is to just keep us watching. It’s slowly improving. Now, you can disagree with me and make a point about ratings. Ratings have hit a low MNF. Why? Because the 15-18 year olds are most probly lost interest in wrestling, due to likes of Cena being superman.
Yes, Cena is the biggest draw in WWE, but, here is what the problem is. Maybe, the 12-14 year old Cena fans now, are losing interest in Cena, thus not wanting to watch WWE. So for ratings, thats whats happening IMO.
There is months left to WM 28, I would hat if WWE did a massive amount build up now, its way too soon. After RR, then that storyline will evolve heavily……which is going to attract a lot of fans back, to the the Rock. So ratings SHOULD improve better after RR.
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Yeah, this has definitely been a good year for WWE and especially Raw. Back in 2009/10 Raw was the worst we’ve ever seen it, but it’s been a great show this year. Smackdown’s been pretty good too, even with the lack of main event talent.
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I thought 2009/2010 was bad too but look at the matches for the Greatest WWE PPV Matches of 2009-2010.
http://www.wwedvdnews.com/wwe-best-ppv-matches-of-the-year-2009-2010-dvd-details/535/
WWE had good matches in those years.
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For me, RAW 2008 till 2010 have been horrible. I still watched it ’cause I understand the pro wrestling cycle. So, 2011 has been great.
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Hey Ray…a comment I sent for Shaman is “awaiting moderation.” Could you check that out?
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I personaly think Cena retires soon. Seems like Riley will take his place…For now TNA is much better because it’s Attidute and it has better storylines
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Cena is not going anywhere for a long time.
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Has WWE been great in 2011? Absolutely not!
Let’s start at the top… The Royal Rumble: Instead of trying to make a good ppv, they just threw 10 extra guys in it.
Moving onto WM27, which didn’t even feel like regular ppv quality, let alone like a WM. Pretty much every ppv from WM to MITB was bad.
Christian finally won a World title…and then lost it two days later! Then he made an illogical heel turn, and began a stale, repeating, storyline with Orton. He won the title back later, only to do nothing with it, and drop it back to Orton at the next ppv.
The Punk storyline was beyond awesome when it began. However, then they rushed it, and made bad decisions. The whole “crown a new champ” was horrible, and made no sense. The storyline has also been riddled with plotholes here and there.
Stephanie making sporadic appearances, great, but she should be more involved in this story (maybe she be soon). So far, her appearances aren’t enough to make this a great year.
While I do love Sheamus’ face turn, and he is one of the most interesting parts of the show, he didn’t do much for the first half of the year.
Miz/Truth- yes they’re entertaining, but they just formed three weeks ago.
The Rock/Cena buildup has been almost completely via Twitter. Before WM, yeah they had some good promos, but they only took away from the actual WM mainevent.
The Divas division is still in the toilet. The tag team division is still terrible, though, there are signs of modest improvement.
Some shows have been great, some good, but unfortuanatly most have been flat.
Commentary- JR being back us a God-send, but the arguing, going off topic, rambling, annoying, WTF are they talking about…commentary still remains.
Now, compared to the last 6 years, 2011 has been by far better! You can see signs of improvement, and I’ve really enjoyed this year for the most part. However, looking at this year on it’s own, should make realize that WWE isn’t at the “Great” level yet.
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Okay, i’ll agree the Royal Rumble match was thrown together. WM 27 I think was a good WM, it was just hyped too much, the way Rock said it’s going to be the most electrifying WM of all time just was too much to disappoint fans. As you know J, I haven’t been hyping myself up in recent years, this is what I was doing up until WM, NOT hyping myself up too much. But hey, look what came out of WM…..Rock vs. Cena WM 28, well it is leading to that from WM 27, Taker and HHH had a great match. Edge vs. Del Rio was pretty good too.
Yes Christian lost it two days later, yes or no, were you SHOCKED? ‘Cause I sure all hell did not see that coming, that’s what I want as a wrestling fan; to be shocked. Pretty much agree with you they rushed the crown champions and it made no sense, but I look at it this way….Punk and HHH is going to be good, Del Rio and Cena should be good, there actually putting effort into the tag team division, and they are doing okay with Diva’s as of late, well better than last year.
With Steph, this storyline is going to lead further, which is where I think Steph will come in. So, we gotta wait and see.
Cole, really don’t know what to make of Cole. He’s annoying, but it’s his job to do what he’s doing, so I can’t blame Cole himself.
I think your analyzing things too much, not saying that in a bad way ’cause I know your a very intelligent fan.
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Daniel Bryan needs to be on every PPV card. I recently did a ranking of the best WWE matches I have seen live and #2 and #4 were matches with Daniel Bryan in them. That’s not a coincidence. Every Daniel Bryan match has the potential to steal the show just like guys like Chris Jericho, CM Punk, and Shawn Michaels. I would love to see Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk. If I made a column about current WWE dream matches that CAN happen, Punk vs. Bryan would be very close to the top of that list. I want to see that match and I know they have wrestled before but not in the WWE and not a singles match. I saw highlights of the Royal Rumble 2010 in which Punk was #1 and Bryan was #2 and they looked GOOD!
Oh and R-Truth/Miz is a great team. My favorite WWE tag team since JeriShow. This tag team is more enjoyable than ShowMiz I think.
As for your high views/low comments problem, I’m having that problem too. My site has had amazing views in the last two months but it’s the same three commenters (thanks Capt. Smooth, Shaman, and Alan!). People read but don’t always leave comments. I think it may be because some may think they need to register to send comments and don’t realize how easy it is to send comments. I have been reading TJR for about 2 years but I just started commenting in May. I assumed I needed to create an account to comment and I never realized that all I needed to do was enter my email and screen name. Maybe in the future at the end of columns, let readers know how easy it is to comment and mention that no registration is required.
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Bryan vs. Punk would be epic, with that, I think Punk could actually make Bryan more interesting if they were in a feud.
Thanks for telling me about that, i’ll do it from now on.
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John Cena needs to stay in the WWE. Booing Cena at live events is too fun. And Riley will take his place? WHAT?! #areyouseriousbro
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Actully no, WWE uses Cena for money, of course he wont retire so soon. If you think Cena should retire at 33 then I guess you think Miz, Orton, etc. must retire aswell.
@Ray replied on OWUR
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WWE has been far from awesome this year. The Punk storyline started off brilliantly, and honestly, I couldn’t see how they’d screw it up. Then they brought Nash and HHH into it, and from what I’ve heard the whole HHH/Punk thing is being done to belittle Punk, and they’re booking themselves into a corner again. Punk has been made to look like a chump, and they need to drop the smarky little comments in the promos because Punk has become annoying
Del Rio is severely over-rated on the mic, he’s above average in-ring; Ricardo Rodriguez is the best thing about him, and the reason he gets so much heat: RR is more over than ADR. I never want to see Stephanie on-screen, she brings nothing to the company for me, and just reminds me and others how HHH married his way to the top; because honestly HHH is the king of burying.
Miz/Truth is a nice little team, but Truth is pretty old and won’t be around too much longer really. It’s nice that they are trying to rejuvenate the tag division at least a bit. Sheamus’ face turn has been awesome and one of the highlights of the year; as has Mark Henry’s heel turn and dominant run.
Bryan Danielson seems to be a stepping stone to help set up the Misticara vs Sincognito/Hunicara feud which is an absolute waste of his talent. He’s lost a ton of matches since winning MITB without there being a real storyline or purpose to it, which makes that win look like a fluke. I love Mistico and Incognito, but the character of Sin Cara I just hate; they’re both ridiculously talented but this character isn’t one I like at all.
WWE seem to be pushing Alex Riley to an extent which is a huge mistake. He’s way too green and although charismatic, he’s a liability just like Anderson was. Just look at how he sandbagged Swagger a few weeks ago, he’s not safe to be in a WWE ring. He gets a push when Swaggs is one of the best wrestlers in the company, maybe top three on Raw. He’s pretty charismatic and they should have turned him face when he was helping Cole. He’s talented; A-Ri is dangerous.
In the past two weeks the only segments I’ve been interested in are the Sin Cara ones, because I want to see two of the three real luchadores employed by WWE (and the only two on WWE programming) battle it out in a lucha libre match. Apart from that I’ve given up on the terrible shows they’re putting out; TNA is horrifying on a whole different level so I’m stuck with watching Mexican lucha, Japanese puroreso and joshi, and American indy matches on youtube. WWE may be better than it’s been in the past few years, but that doesn’t make it great, it’s still pretty poor and it’s never been because of the PG rating. It’s mostly Vince’s fault, and to a lesser extent HHH, Stephanie and the creative team/bookers
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I understand what both yourself and J are saying.
I think because my expectations are not as high as you guys, I enjoy it more. I think we just gotta wait and see until storylines are over to judge fully. You never know what swerves could happen.
Yea, PG rating should never be blamed, it’s how the shows are booked.
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I agree with you there on Mark Henry, a phenomenal heel knows how to play a good character as one and can get a lot of good heat. Del Rio, great wrestler but I will say he’s repetitive on the mic a tad too much every time. Steph I could honestly careless about, yes I said it Bella lol. Bryan IMO is a loser and a dweeb just like Sir Cole always used to say because while he’s physique with his martial art like skills, he isn’t nowhere near as good as Hunico. Sheamus, he worked great as a heel and during his time as a heel, he was the “Bully Ray” from TNA of the WWE so it was an awful move in my opinion to make this guy a face. Miz/Truth Tag Team is great for 2 reasons, it’s making the Tag Division bigger which the WWE desperately needs and Miz and Truth were basically doing nothing at the time. As for JR, he needs to get off Commentary for good and leave Commentary to real Commentating Legends like Sir Cole.
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Is that your opinion out of AA gimmick? 😛
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Yep, and my constant siding with all the heels. 😛
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It’s good one Pay Per View, lousy the next. Not that theme exactly, but pretty much. I think they blew it by bringing Punk back right away. If I go 2-3 weeks without seeing someone I like, it’s not a big deal when they come back. I would have had him come back sometime aroud Survivor Series and wait to have a unification title bout with Del Rio at TLC in December. Alas, I am not Freddie Prinze Jr. and have no say.
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Punk was brought back way to early. Even if it was the RAW after SummerSlam it wouldn’t of been too bad. WWE should of teased us with the cult of personality theme, such a powerful song…with propaganda and all.
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Man and I thought JSHITTIES blog was bad. He’s a fucking genius compared to this bullshit. You’re horrible Ray. Just horrible.
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Want a cookie?
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yeah. Check out his signature. The A Bomb or The Grenade wahtever the name was
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I agree with it somewhat. I believe this year the best thing that happened was the START of the Punk vs Establishment thing, but they’ve managed to fuck it up. Sheamus is my favourite and I will always love what he’s doing, I am more of a heel fan than babyface fan but Sheamus broke that barrier down and I enjoy watching him as babyface, more so than heel.
As for PPVs.. I thought the Royal Rumble was solid, other than the Nexus taking control of the Rumble -that was boring, and even more boring was the fact Cena got rid of them. Boooooring.
Agree with you about Del Rio, and Daniel Bryan. Christian -i disagree with, they ruined him. I’d go as far as saying they buried him, because it does NOT look good when any superstar wins the title at a PPV and then loses it on SD tuesday taping, for that info to be released on the internet as a spoiler and then shown on friday as a “shock”. Half of us knew, and it made Christian look really weak. Not to mention his constant moaning grated on my nerves and his 500 matches with Randy Orton got to be a liiiiiiiittle stale… Wait who am I kiddin? A LOT stale.
And yes, for the record. Stephanie McMahon is 500% milf material. Good article. 🙂
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Did you mean Riley will replace Cena in a good way or a bad way? If you mean a bad way, I agree.
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