CRYPTIC

Shown on recent WWE programming. I say it's Sting!

We'll all find out on February 21st.

UMAGA

Thoughts on Umaga.
Did someone say 3 Minutes!?

I was looking through WWE.com last night after watching the very well executed Extreme Rules PPV to look at the highlight photos and see what would be on tap for RAW.

I then came across a random but shocking news piece on the site announcing that WWE had released Umaga from his employment.

“From WWE.com:

World Wrestling Entertainment has come to terms on the release of SmackDown Superstar Umaga as of today, June 8, 2009. WWE wishes Umaga the best in all future endeavours.”

I don’t get it. Umaga was one of the top heels and one of the best characters going, especially in a current period in WWE where it seems the good guy ratio is overlapping the bad. Allegiance aside, Umaga was a solid hard-hitter and brought out the best in a lot of the faces he feuded with.

When Umaga first came into WWE in 2006, he was frizzy haired and somewhat a little generic - The whole Samoan savage thing had been done before. It also didn’t help that he’d already been established from two previous TV incarnations, Jamal (WWE) and later as Ekmo (TNA). The best thing about Umaga at the time of the character starting out was his charismatic Cuban manager Armando Estrada who was a great spokesperson and mouthpiece.

Umaga as a character really came into fruition when his move set was altered from just relying solely corner moves. Moves like the Samoan Spike, Samoan Drop and the Sidewalk Slam variant were both very good highspots and brought Umaga more into a better centre of focus. Umaga became a much more watchable ring warrior when he broke free from mainly trapping opponents in the turnbuckles.

As well as sorting out the moveset, the image improved. Umaga got rid of the troll hair and replaced the do with tribal dreadlocks and shaved patterns, he also acquired better henna face tat designs and better ring gear. Umaga looked more fearsome and his image complimented his in-ring toughness.

Umaga had some great wars against some of the most credible stars including DX (Triple H and Shawn Michaels), John Cena, and Jeff Hardy. Umaga had also got off to a great start when his first WWE feud pitted him against Ric Flair where he gained his first major victory. Many other victims followed after Ric Flair. Umaga was also a brilliant nemesis for Triple H for the better half of 2007.

So what about Umaga’s appeal? He did big moves, looked nasty in a stylish way, and had presence. Watching Umaga destroy people and scream out his Samoan war-cries was like watching Taz the Tasmanian Devil but only much more extreme.

What started to go downhill for Umaga was the separation of himself and his manager (who drafted to ECW). The dynamic had been broken in half and both forcibly had to branch out on their own. A soulless feud with Bobby Lashley (representing Donald Trump) accumulating at Wrestlemania 23 was about as wholesome drinking Somerfield Basics tea.

Now that Umaga is gone, he will certainly leave a gap that needs filling. At least towards the end of his WWE run he got to speak some English, although that debatably not a good thing. Hopefully Eddie Fatu can pick up somewhere on the Indy circuit, maybe go back to TNA or reunite with Armando Estradra. Perhaps a fantasy bout against Samoa Joe is now a possibility… The 90 Day No Compete clause will probably help sort something out for the future.

Umaga will be missed.

PUNK

Last night’s edition of WWE RAW restored some of my faith in WWE programming when out of the blue the most tidy, slot-filling story twist happened.

And of course I am referring to a Pepsi Twist here LOL.

CM Punk who won #1 contendership briefcase at Wrestlemania 24 this year cashed in his title shot and put the now previous champion Edge in his place and snagged the championship belt after a vicious GTS (Go To Sleep) to the head.

Edge had previously caused The Undertaker to be banished from the WWE (although I reckon he’ll be back at Summerslam) and along with La Familia gave the Smackdown locker-room an unfair power struggle, with Edge as the champ along with the General Manager Vickie Guerrero in his back pocket (and probably his front pocket too :P).

So yeah, Edge for a long time now had been asking for a comeuppance, so lo & behold CM Punk was the man to bring it.

I’ve liked CM Punk for a long time ever since his pre-WWE days on the indy scene. I even had the pleasure of meeting Punk back in early 2005 when I was with *certain promotion* and commentated for the match he was in.

Punk is a drink free, drug free, straight-edge superstar whose only addiction is competition and sometimes a splash of Pepsi . Punker is also a GI Joe fan too, but I won’t hold that against him.

But yeah… CM Punk as Champ on RAW.

Bloody good!

I hope things continue to get better.

REGAL

I am really stoked to see on TV Steve 'William' Regal getting the character push in the WWE he so justly deserves. First off being the General Manager of RAW, then the 2008 King of the Ring and thirdly being used in top level feuds against stars like HHH and Mr Kennedy.

I grew up watching Regal on ITV World of Sport Wrestling, as well as Fit Finlay and Robbie Brookside. I've been watching wrestling since I was 6 so you can guess how long I have been watching Regal plus other classic British stars and wrestling in general.

Regal was the first wrestler I shook hands and stood in a wrestling ring with. I am talking here about a time around 17 years ago when All Star Promotions ran shows fortnightly at the Colston Hall in Bristol. The occasion was a tag team main event which involved The Liverpool Lads (Regal and Brookside) VS Doc Dean and some other dude who I forgot. At this time the Liverpool Lads were well over with the crowd as a babyface tag team whilst Doc Dean was a much hated heel and also a former Liverpool Lad himself (His storyline is basically similar to that of Shawn Michaels betraying Marty Jannetty and ending The Rockers). Basically the Liverpool Lads scored the win and the arena went nuts, so much so a few of us kids stormed the ring to congratulate our heroes.

It was very cool that later on Regal joined WCW and even though he was a heel he was in a good position to represent the UK in the USA and teach some of them ‘yanks’ a thing or two ;) There was even a time when Regal made the mighty Bill Goldberg work for his pinfall as opposed to being part of a cliché of a 3 minute match opponent. Regal refused to job so easily like many others did and it got him in trouble. At least Goldberg got took to school British Strong-style that was the main thing.  That match is viewable here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POjGbzOYDOg

There is many other Regal stuff I could go on about, but I just don’t have the time and energy to spit it all out in one day. Regal is the man and that’s what matters.

Now in this present day, William Regal is ruling the WWE with an iron fist and is definitely the main in charge despite a current anti-UK vibe on WWE programming (well last weeks RAW was definitely anti-UK). I hope the character push will last for a long time to come.

All hail King Regal! Rule Britania!

AFTERMATH

An entertaining night of hi-octane wrestling action on TV has left me with 4 hours sleep but happy about the outcome.

Wrestlemania 24 turned out better than I expected…

The only match that literally put me to sleep was the Big Show VS Mayweather bout. I am fan of Big Show and would have liked to have seen him in a program I cared about. Apparently Show was supposed to be the heel in that encounter, but that was hard to tell especially when Floyd Mayweather entered the area with his huge rudeboy posse (not very babyface like eh). Still, I hope the rumoured post Wrestlemani a program with the Undertaker will happen.

Speaking of The Undertaker, his match with Edge was a real thrill to watch with so many surprises and near pins pulled out of the bag. This definitely deserved the main event slot and really ended the show on a really high note with The Undertaker expanding his streak to 16-0. As for Edge, he has proved to be best Wrestlemania opponent yet for The Undertaker and really came close to crushing a lot of fans hearts. Although the Undertaker is now the World Heavyweight champion what mattered more was that his streak was kept intact. The credibility of Smackdown has risen for the time being.

Ric Flair VS Shawn Michaels played off well although things really started to slow down a bit when Michaels landed really badly out of the ring onto an announce table. Thanks aplenty to Shawn and Ric for still putting on a highly entertaining and pure wrestling match which had a unique Highlander-ish ending to it.

Summary of Wrestlemania thoughts:

Kane as ECW Champion! I hope he will be used better with this reign.

Bunnymania = Waste of time. Santino sold Snoop Dogg’s punch more than he did Lawler’s, in fact he did’nt sell Lawler’s punch very well at all. The Diva stuff, well…

Belfast Brawl, I wish Finlay had won that one.

Money in The Bank: Loads of sick bumps and a good return of Matt Hardy. The push of CM Punk begins! Looks like he’ll be fed to Kane or jump a brand to be fed to someone else. I hope Shelton Benjamin is okay from the really sick bump he did, in fact he should have won it IMO.

Batista VS Umaga: This had potential but something just wasn’t there.

The HHH, Cena, Orton 3 Way: Not bad, and a surprise to see Orton win. Orton’s Wrestlemania loss streak has been broken whilst HHH’s hasn’t.

That’s it for now.

MANIA

Tonight is Wrestlemania 24 and I may be staying up to see this.

I wish I could be more excited about this show but I am not. Aside from the Ric Flair VS Shawn Michaels bout and Undertaker VS Edge I don’t really have much enthusiasm for the show itself. I would be watching this even based on curiosity alone. The missus is buying the event from Sky Box Office and we are likely to be watching it in HD over at the in-laws where the house has thicker walls and we can shout and yell more than we can at our own non-HD TV place.

The Big Show VS Floyd Maywether I have no full interest in, although I do like the Big Show and am glad to see him back in the ring. I think this program was poorly built up from the word go and during that build up there was confusion as to who the actual heel and face in the feud was. I still have no idea who the heel and face in this encounter will be. I do hope this bout will mount more than the daft sumo match from a few years back.

Ric Flair VS Shawn Michaels has a lot of hopes from everybody behind it. Many expect this possible ‘retirement’ match for Ric Flair to be the show stealer. I can’t agree more. I have high expectations for this bout and I hope it would be slotted in the main event instead of the HHH/Cena/Orton three-way match. Michaels VS Flair will be a golden classic no doubt! I just hope that if does end in tears it will be happy tears at least. Ric Flair’s retirement is on the line after all.

The 24 man ECW Battle Royal is being given the elbow towards dark match territory and yet the Divas match still remains on the main broadcast. I think the Divas bout will be a waste of space but yet most promoters believe sex appeal sells better than wrestling, so I can see the logic in that to a degree.

Whether I end up watching this live or acquiring the show the next day I am hoping this show will be good. As it is Wrestlemania I am sure there will be plenty of huge surprises and possibly some high jinks from TNA Wrestling who are also staying in the same town over this weekend.

Currently I am not that excited but I hope to be as the show looms closer.

Here's hoping Taker leaves the Citrus Bowel Arena 16-0!