Money in The Bank 2011 Preview with Rik Moran

WWE's Money in the Bank is now less than 24 hours away,
I'm going to go ahead and make my predictions for what's going to go down.
In my view Money in the Bank has been the best built Pay Per View of the year,
and of recent memory.
I can't remember the last PPV to have a build up like this.

Perhaps the most thought provoking main event of the year, maybe even since the
attitude era itself.

The buzz created ever since Punk's historic worked shoot promo has been nothing
short of unbelievable.
I couldn't believe how my facebook and twitter feeds lit up right after it went
out.
There were theories flying out left right and centre, is Punk staying, leaving,
winning the title, being squashed by Cena, myself I cannot wait for this.

I think that CM Punk is going to win and then he's going to be cashed in on by
the Raw MITB winner.

Result - CM Punk wins, only to lose the title to the MITB winner.

Raw MITB match.

I know it, you know it, it's going to be Del Rio. And he's walking out as the
WWE Champion after cashing in on Punk.

Smackdown MITB match.

I'm torn on this on, I think it'll either be Sheamus or Sin Cara. Why? Well in
my view Sin Cara hasn't recieved the push I thought he would on joining the WWE, perhaps winning this match will be the start of that.
As for Seamus, I just like him and feel he needs to get back on track and go
after some gold again.

Roll on Sunday night already.

I know I've missed off the other matches but if you're like me, you'll probably
guess, quite correctly, how they will go. WWE has become predictable recently. I hope this PPV may be the start of some unpredicatability.

Rik

The Indy Corner/Total Wrestling Show Competition

Indy Corner competition brought to you by http://wlhdvdsales.webs.com

Here is your chance to win a ROH DVD, brand new & sealed. There will be a choice of 3 to choose from and they are
1. Gold Rush (19/3/10, featuring ROH World Champion Tyler Black & ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers vs. ROH TV Champion Eddie Edwards, Davey Richards & Chris Hero)
2. Blue Grass Brawl (22/7/10, featuring ROH Champion Tyler Black vs. Claudio Castignoli – non title and the main event was The American Wolves – Richards & Edwards vs. The Briscoe Brothers)
3. Hate Chapter II (23/7/10, featuring The Kings of Wrestling & Sara Del Ray vs. The Briscoe Bothers & Amazing Kong – WWE’s Kharma, Grudge Rematch – Kevin Steen vs. El Generico and a ‘must see’ tag team match as The American Wolves face Generation Me.

To be in with a chance of winning any of these 3 DVD’s then first you have to ‘LIKE’ the facebook pages of BOTH The Total Wrestling Show & Wrestling’s Last Hope and you have to enter this question – Name the show where Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards got the name The American Wolves. Send in any answers with your contact details to studio@totalwrestlingshow.com with INDY COMP in the subject line. Closing date for entries is 12 mid-day on Saturday July 23rd 2011.

WLH PPV Prediction League - Prizes To Be Won

Every WWE & TNA PPV anyone who enters the prediction league has to predict the result for each match on the PPV, if you get the result right, it's 2 points for you in the league the first counting of points will be after the WWE Summer Slam show in August and then after the final PPV of the year. The winner of the league will have a choice of a DVD of their choice from a list to be determined. I must say, don't want to annoy any American readers but this is for UK readers only for a DVD, any American readers that take part will get a PAYPAL payment instead.
Obviously, you don't have to predict for every PPV but the more PPV's you do, the better chance you have of getting more points.

Email ALL predictions to wlhstu@aol.co.uk

1. RAW Money in The Bank Match: Rey Mysterio vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Alex Riley vs. R-Truth vs. The Miz vs. Evan Bourne vs. Jack Swagger
2. Smack Down Money in The Bank Match: Kane vs. Sin Cara vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Wade Barrett vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Justin Gabriel vs. Heath Slater vs. Sheamus
3. Diva's Title Match: Kelly Kelly (c) vs. Brie Bella
4. Big Show vs. Mark Henry
5. World Title Match: Randy Orton (c) vs. Christian
6. WWE Title Match: John Cena (c) vs. CM Punk

My First Show At Fight Club Pro on July 15th 2011

Any of my twitter followers or my friends on facebook will know yesterday I went to Wolverhampton to Fight Club Pro's Fight For Honour show, it was only a 4 match card but the show which was supposed to start at 20:30 but ended up starting at 20:45. The first match was a superb match, I mean it really was one of the best matches I have seen this year and for a ROH fan that is saying something. The match featured local wrestler MK McKinnan against US indy wrestler Jonathan Gresham and Big Japan Pro Wrestling's Shinya Ishikawa. I am not one for doing match reviews spot for spot suffice to say, I thought this match was amazing, I was impressed with all 3 guys especially McKinnan & Gresham and what the latter lacks in size he more than makes up for in talent. McKinnan got the win in this tremendous match.

After the first intermission which was supposed to be 10 minutes but was 20 or more we then had a tag team match featuring out and out baby faces The Hunter Brothers square off against The Red & Greens Dragons, 2 guys basically wearing masks like former PWG worker Super Dragon. This match was OK but nothing more, one of the Hunter brothers has a good luck about him but overall, the match wasn't much to write home about, all the guys worked hard though. Another 10 minute intermission - Somewhere around this time we had Trent Seven come out to the ring and call out his opponent for the night Davey Richards, the short of it was Seven saying it hadn't be decided what title would be on the line in the match either his FCP title or Davey's ROH one.
They did a coin flip and it turned out it would be the ROH title on the line.

Below: The promo Davey cut on Trent Seven after the coin flip to see if the ROH or FCP title would be on the line in the main event.



Match number 3 was a six man tag which if nothing else was entertaining for comedic purposes thanks to the crowd it had Clint Margera, "The Dragon" Zak Martinez & Blue Dragon vs. Dan Ryder, Bobby Barratt & Dave Williams. Again, the Dragons wore variations of Super Dragon masks. The younger of the two, Blue Dragon seemed Very young, I said to Kyle Beech who was there with me "he's doing a Steve Corino, wrestling under a mask because he is too young to compete". The match was a so-so match, I was more entertained by the crowd and how they were ripping on the heels Ryder, Barratt & Williams, Barratt was getting 'purple twat' chants as his trunks were purple, Ryder was getting 'cock rider' chants and Williams was getting 'Uncle fester' chants. I felt for the ref who was getting 'The ref's a jew' & 'strictly kosher' chants, that was a bit uncalled for in my opinion. Blue Dragon worked a decent match and he'll go onto be a very good worker I think. Margera has a certain something about him, the crowd seemed to love the guy.

This was followed by the last break before the main event. And then, it was about to go off, as FCP Champion Trent Seven was to challenge for the ROH world title against the best wrestler in the world - Davey Richards. For me, time was getting on and I knew I would have to leave very soon to get home on my last train but I did get to film Davey's intro before leaving.

Below: This is the ring intro of Davey, the last thing I got to see before I had to leave.



I am so gutted I had to miss the match as that was the whole reason I went to the show but hey, one of them things, hopefully there will be another time.

Follow me on twitter @WLHSTU

HBK & 1PW - Rik Moran Discusses

Note from Stu: Rik did this article a week ago or so but there was a bit of an issue with the content and he was advised to get it changed so here is the article again with stuff removed and new stuff added what he has learned since the original article.

Hi Everyone,

Lots going on over on Facebook and Twitter since the 8th of July about Shawn Michaels UK Visit in October so I thought I'd give my thoughts and opinions.

On the morning of July 8th 1PW, posted on their Facebook/Twitter: "We're planning to post a formal statement imminently about HBK"

The statement arrived shortly after: "Despite the many inaccurate reports surfacing on the internet, negotiations between 1PW and Shawn Michaels are currently ongoing. At this stage, as far as 1PW is concerned, a contract is in place and HBK will be coming to the UK as agreed."
Now, whilst this would seem to say that the visit is still on, 1PW has done nothing to calm peoples fears that they have lost their money on tickets for the event, when they haven't received them or are getting any communication from the company about what is going on. A generic message to everyone on the companies Facebook/twitter is not good enough in my view.
The fact that the company owner manager, has gone and deleted most of the people he had on his personal facebook page, so that he can't be got hold of, isn't the best move. Especially at the given time. He could say it's his personally page and company stuff is to be done via the company page.
But the timing of this mass deletion of people, could not be worse.
This gives people the impression that they are being conned and it gives
the events an uncertainty about them.

The uncertainty is not helped when a few hours after the 1PW post. There was an email apparently from Shawn's agent is posted on 1PW's wall saying that it was off.
Now anyone could have posted this. Oh the joys of facebook. So I contacted Shawn Michaels himself via twitter and Luke Munson (Shawn's agent) via email
to see if this email was genuine.

Shawn must have got a lot of similar messages as he posted:

"Gettin a lot of question re .the 1PW stuff. I've been told nothing different yet.I will make a call 2day to try & find out."

Followed 5 minutes later with

"Right now, I truthfully know what u know. Less actually. I thought it was still on. I get net news on me from u. I'm on it tho."

The next Day Shawn posted "I'll let u know when I know something. I'm ready. They have answered no e-malis or calls from my people."

I have been in touch with Shawn's agent myself several times over the last few weeks

Now he didn't confirm or deny if the earlier post from him on Facebook was genuine or not but his message does say that the agreement with 1PW is still there.
so to me that looks like Shawn is still coming to the UK in October.

I think all this confusion could have been easily avoided, if 1PW were better at communication especially with their fans.
After all it's the fans that keep the industry going by paying out for all the tickets.
1PW does not have a great track record or reputation when it comes to big name appearances. Their poor communication with people does nothing
to help themselves.

Now if I come up to the 10th of October. 1PW again open a hornets nest on Facebook, saying that if they don't post it, ignore it.
They also say that they have actually issued a lot of refunds, and have also not cashed any new cheques sent to them,
and will not until everything is fully resolved.

Shawn also said "I know there's some rumors right now about the UK trip. As far as I know, it's still a go. My people are speaking with 1PW tomorrow.
Now, if anything changes u will be the 1st to know"

There's also the problem with the venue of The Dome, who are saying that the event is cancelled and are issuing refunds on all the tickets that they sold themselves.
1PW are still saying it's going ahead. Again I think some communication needs to be done stat and sort out the venue or there will be a lot of people turning up on the day,
perhaps even Shawn Michaels himself and the venue won't be available!

I can honestly say that I feel I could run a better event if I had the capitol to do so, I only hope that this fiasco doesn't put Shawn Michaels or any other foreign talent off of working with UK promotors.
Because there are a number of good ones out there.

I will be keeping an eye on what happens come October with great interest.

Rik

What happened to Gimmicks? By AH Walker

I first started watching wrestling in 2001 mainly because of The Rock but for the longest of times I was enthralled by Kane. The reason why? Not because of the fantastic wrestling ability that he showed (sarcasm). And it was not because of his excellence on the microphone (more sarcasm). It was because whenever I saw him I was interested to see him as he didn’t look like a human and he made me take notice (It would have done the same thing to you if you were 8 years old). And when I became smart to wrestling I looked over wrestling from the 90s and I was enthralled with wrestlers such as The Undertaker.
But we fast forward to 2011 and gimmicks are all but extinct. Undertaker who may still have his gimmick but he makes less than ten TV appearances a year so we can’t include him. Kane has been ‘de-monstered’ (I know that isn’t a word sue me) to the point where he cries when his dad (Paul Bearer for you idiots) and tag team partner (the Big Show for you people that have been skipping Raw, to be honest I don’t blame you) get abducted and hit by a car respectively. And the closet thing we have to a gimmick is Cody Rhodes.
So I ask you loyal reader. Do you think that there should be more gimmicks in the WWE? Feel free to hit me up on Twitter @AH_Walker or just hit up Stu… until next time… Take care…Shave your hair…

What? Did I say something wrong?

Duckman Arrives At WLH To Talk ROH & WWE

First things first I suppose I should introduce myself. Seeing as this is the first time I’ve written for Wrestling’s Last Hope (what a great name for a site by the way!) I’m Duckman, as you can tell by my screen name. My friend’s call me Sam. I’m 30 years old and live in the West Coast of Scotland. I’ve worked in the legal profession for the past ten years – not nearly as exciting or glamorous as it sounds, believe me. I support the mighty Glasgow Rangers FC and love MMA, music and the pub!

Oh yeah, and I’m an avid fan of professional wrestling which I’ve been following for as long as I can remember. Which I guess is the reason I’m writing this column, and hopefully more, for this great site. If Stu lets me that is…if he doesn’t, thanks for reading and it’s been a hell of a ride!

Anyway, my main interest these days is Ring of Honor. I’ve been a die hard ROH fan since I first saw it on the Wrestling Channel (oh how I miss thee) here in the UK back in early 2004. I was hooked the moment I saw Low Ki vs. AJ Styles from the old Murphy Rec Center in a match from a few years earlier. I had never seen wrestling like it – my mind was officially blown.

Since those early days I’ve purchased over 200 ROH DVD's and followed the promotion about as closely as you can from the UK. I also follow a lot of other indy wrestling with PWG and DGUSA being two of my favourite promotions. But honestly? It’s all about ROH for me. Has been for years and I’d imagine that’s what the majority of my potential future ramblings here will be about.

Of course my wrestling obsession began like most people with the WWF around 1990 or 1991 when I was 9 years old. I have vague, misty memories of watching the UK classic, World of Sport show on ITV with my Dad when I was very young but it was the bright colours and superhero characters of WWF that hooked me properly. I still remember the first match I saw, an absolute catch-as-catch-can “classic” between a bloated and roided up Davy Boy Smith and even more bloated and roided up Warlord from WWF Superstars. Five minutes of unconvincing punches and kicks, a lot of stalling and a press slam or two. Man, that one match, no matter how obviously shitty it was, hooked me for life. I was to the WWF what Smith and Warlord were to HGH – an addict!

That addiction lead me to attending live events in the UK, staying up late watching all the WWF/E PPVs on Sky Sports and buying loads of VHS tapes (remember them kids?) I followed all the highs and the lows of WWF/E through the 90s and into the 2000s. You could say I grew up watching wrestling.

As I got older I found myself becoming a student of the weird pseudo sport – watching shoot interviews, reading wrestling books, watching as many classic and historic matches from the US, Japan and Mexico as I could find. I was basically learning the history of what had gone before. Like I said, a true wrestling addict. Or the less complimentary moniker, a smark. Hey, I’m fucking proud of it!

But in recent years I’ve found that addiction, specifically where WWF/E was concerned, has turned into an obsession, which in turn faded to an avid interest, to an interest, to a casual follow, to a barely even watch anymore, to my current state; a 30 year old, life long wrestling fan, who simply can’t stand the product that is WWE or their red headed step child, TNA…or Impact Wrestling…or WCW The Revenge…or whatever it’s called this week. That thing Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are feeding off of like two perma- tanned leeches. You know the one I mean.

I can honestly say I haven’t watched a full episode of Raw or Impact in the last few years. I follow the shows in reports online and if something interests me I’ll watch but for the majority of the time I get bored by it. I still watch the big four PPVs that WWE produce – more out of habit than actual interest.

It’s a sad state of affairs really but thankfully with the indy scene in the US there are still places where a jaded wrestling fan can find enjoyment. In particular ROH where they still present wrestling as a serious sport, that doesn’t insult your intelligence and it isn’t simply geared up as a corporate machine that markets bullshit to kids, all the while being embarrassed by what they are what they sell. Me? Bitter? Never!

Then again, perhaps all is not lost for the disenfranchised WWE fan and that’s what I’m going to talk about today – apart from myself! There is a glimmer of hope with the current ‘hottest thing in wrestling,’ which as you all know is the angle currently being played out by a man who I have long considered as the most complete and entertaining wrestler working today, that man of course being the majestic CM Punk.

As a long time ROH fan I can’t help feeling both an over whelming sense of pride in seeing Punk setting the wrestling world on fire over the past month and also a slightly smug ‘told you so’ attitude towards the whole thing.

When you follow someone that you just know is ‘the man’ and you tell people he’s ‘the man’ and all they reply with is, “well he’s not in WWE so he doesn’t matter,” it kind of makes you sick. That’s what used to happen to me when I told people about CM Punk in ROH. Cause we all knew he was going to be the best in the world but no one believed us. Thankfully now everyone else is finally catching up. It’s about damn time people!!

Anyone who saw Punk’s work in ROH will now be telling you that if you think his work in WWE is good, you should have seen his feud with Raven. Or the awesome Second City Saints stable with Colt Cabana and Ace Steel. Or his series of matches with Samoa Joe which put the ROH World Title on the map and lit the fire for both men to become Kings of the Indies. They’ll regale you with stories of his intense feuds with Jimmy Rave and countless others. Then of course the coup de grâce – The Summer of Punk in 2005.

That was a very similar angle to what is playing out at the moment in WWE. I won’t go into the whole angle because I’ll be here all day. For those who don’t know (and shame on you if you’re in that group) let’s just say it was the dress rehearsal for the angle currently playing out in front of millions of people on WWE TV every week.

That angle cemented my belief that CM Punk was destined for greatness because he did something I hadn’t seen any other wrestler do in ROH. He successfully worked the fans. Those same fans, like me and no doubt like you, who read the websites, who subscribe to the newsletters, who consume and devour every piece of wrestling news and insight we can. Even those jaded assholes in the Green Lantern t-shirts, Punk did the impossible - he fooled us all. Something that is almost impossible to do with today’s wrestling fans over the age of 10.

That takes talent. Not just the booking talent of Gabe Sapolsky (which was at its most brilliant at this point) but the talent and the conviction and the utter fucking belief in what he was doing. And Punk had that, in spades. Just like now, he blew the fans mind’s. He left them desperate to find out what would happen next. Asking how was this all going to play out? What was real, what wasn’t. Coming up with their own theories. Sitting for hours on end picking apart and mulling over every word of his promos. Just like now.

And why? Simple. They believed. They believed in CM Punk and they believed in the story he was telling. Just like now. He tapped into a seam of opinion in the fan base and he ran with it. In ROH it was leaving for the corporate waste land of WWE, leaving behind his ROH roots and taking the ROH title with him. Now, in 2011, he’s leaving the corporate waste land, tired, broken, sick of the grind of the machine. He’s going to take their Title and do whatever the hell he wants with it, where ever the hell he wants.

And that is why this angle is working so well. He’s made people believe and even more importantly, he’s made people care about the story he’s telling. That’s why he can make WWE Ice Cream bars trend on Twitter for hours with a single mention. That’s why he can get the crowd at Raw to chant ‘Colt Cabana’ when two weeks ago 90% of them had no idea who he was, let alone the fact he used to work in WWE! That’s why CM Punk is the hottest thing in wrestling right now and that’s why, as a long time fan, I have had a little faith restored in wrestling…sorry, sports action entertainment soap opera...God I hate Vince McMahon sometimes!

Still, credit to WWE for giving the man the chance to showcase his abilities like this. Credit to them for doing something they haven’t done in years – they took a risk. Even more credit to them for producing one of the best ‘go home’ PPV shows I’ve seen in YEARS on Monday night. They’ve made the fans believe because they’ve allowed a talent like Punk to do what he does best. They given him the platform to reproduce the awesome work he did in ROH on a global scale and it’s paying off in ways I bet WWE never believed it would. When the buy rate for Money in the Bank comes in they can thank Punk for personally delivering at least 50,000 extra buys that they wouldn’t have got without him and this angle.

I guess the big question is, where does he go from here? I’ll keep my guesses and fantasy booking to myself but I’m just preying WWE strike while the iron is hot because they’ve got a superstar on their hands who can breath life into that hulking monster of a company and bring fans like you and I back into the fold. Do I have faith they will? Not really, that’s the cynical smark in me talking…but I am desperate for him to be proved wrong!

One thing I do know for certain is that CM Punk has arrived as THE star in WWE and he’s shown in 3 weeks what a difference you can make to a stale and boring program with some conviction, a little bit of worked shoot awesomeness and an undeniable talent for professional wrestling storytelling – an art that has been lost in recent years.

If there was one man who could make WWE interesting again, it was CM Punk and he’s done just that. Imagine what else he could do if given the chance. Never mind The Summer of Punk, this could be the Era of Punk and that’s an era I’ll be happy to live in! For once in WWE, I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this opinionated introductory ramble and if you did please let the powers that be here at Wrestling’s Last Hope know by leaving some feedback. They might even ask me back!

You can also follow me on twitter @EFKDuckman where you’ll find me generally shooting the shit, talking wrestling and my other big passion, MMA. Thanks for reading, hope to see you around here again soon.

Peace

Duckman