In the weeks leading up to Survivor Series the WWE seems to be keeping a holding pattern where just enough is done so that the storylines going into the PPV are advanced. Whereas TNA are running around like a headless chicken, changing champions and number one contenders like nobodies business. Is it their fault or are the fates just against them? Maybe this is karma’s revenge for re-hiring Jeff Hardy? Whatever the case, let’s get on with the report…

Weekly Top Ten:

1st Place: Mark Henry (10/10)

Coming in at the top of the chart is the World’s Strongest Champion. Henry took out Bryan last week and this week he pushed things even further by dominating him completely. I’m hoping that this is all a subtle build for when Bryan cashes in his case at Wrestlemania. If Henry can keep the title then Bryan could spend the next few months working against big men to get better so that he can finally beat Henry. Sure this angle would massively sell Bryan’s skills short, but so does being completely dominated by Henry and being made to look like he doesn’t belong in the same ring with him in favour of the Big Show, so a title win at the end of it all would at least be a silver lining.

2nd Place: Wade Barrett (9/10)

As proclaimed by the man himself; the Barrett Barrage continues. It’s nice to see the WWE taking an interest in Barrett, who clearly has the talent to go far, again. The best part about the Barrett Barrage so far is that it proves that with just a couple of weeks with sustained wins a guy that is floundering can become an upper-mid card player who gets a clean win over one of the company’s top guys. The question now is whether another talented guy in Drew McIntyre will get a shot seeing as how Christian can’t compete at Survivor Series and will need a replacement.

3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (8/10)

In the build up to their match at Survivor Series, Punk may have got one over on him on the mic, but Del Rio settled the score by dropping Punk through a catering table on Raw. Del Rio as champion still hasn’t been all that riveting, despite him having the classic gimmicks of a heel valet and being ‘non-American’, at least in WWE terms. If Punk doesn’t take the title off him then hopefully he will improve over time.

4th Place: The Miz (7/10)

This week was a good week for the WWE, at least on Raw, since as well as Del Rio continuing his feud with Punk they also realised that the Awesome Truth need to be seen as being better than Cena when he doesn’t have a partner. The Miz getting a pinfall victory over Cena with the help of Truth shows why he needs a partner and doesn’t detract from his momentum at all because they technically cheated to beat him. It is telling that this week was so good when the company’s two biggest stars were beaten in the middle of the ring with basic heel tactics. That is all you need, no run-ins, no stupid stipulations, just simple moves like a thumb to the eye. It puts the heel over for getting such a victory and the face loses no momentum because everyone knows that the heel cheated to win, if anything it just adds momentum to a feud, it’s win-win and that strangely enough is always good.

5th Place: R-Truth (6/10)

The Miz’s partner comes next after he cunningly grabbed Cena’s leg and made him look like a fool and made Ryder look like he was almost the stronger link in the team of him and Cena. The only worrying thing is that with the goodness that came with this week’s results it is likely that the WWE are just getting us prepared for a face-dominated Survivor Series with Team Orton and Rock & Cena going over. However that might at least mean that Punk will win the WWE title again, which can’t really be a bad thing, and I might even say that the other results would be worth it in this case.

6th Place: Jack Swagger (5/10)

The All-American American got his revenge this week on Santino on a Muppet-free Raw. Swagger is part of Team Wade and hopefully he won’t just act as fodder in the match. To be fair when you look at the line up for the match, despite the lack of build, it could actually be a pretty decent match, with most of the WWE’s top mid-card talent facing off. As long as the match is given enough time it could go down as a Survivor Series classic.

7th Place: Hunico (4/10)

Another man on Team Barrett, and perhaps the only guy who I’m uncertain about, is Hunico. Although now that he has Epico and Primo in tow I’m slightly interested in if these accomplices will play a role in the match when it comes to spots involving him and Sin Cara. Since losing his mask Hunico has done little but ground and pound so I’m waiting to see how his high-flying style is effected now that his persona has changed. I’m hoping he breaks out the aerial assault again soon, but I suppose it is good that he can wrestle a more western ‘WWE-friendly’ style if need be.

8th Place: Johnny Curtis (3/10)

The winner of NXT season four returned to the show this week with a new personality and a new haircut. I quite liked that he was able to show off a bit more charisma in his new persona, but I was a little thrown by how…festive he was acting. At least he has taken on a completely new way to present himself, right down to his mannerisms. Of course if the WWE would have been smart they could have worked him into the whole ‘shoot’ outsiders angle, given him a future endeavours around the time that Masters got his and then brought him back in tow with Truth and Miz since he had been promised a tag team title shot and never gotten it. Even if the Awesome Truth just used him to get a tag title shot and then betrayed him by having the Miz fill in for him would have been good since then he could have come back as a face later. These are all potential opportunities Curtis could have been given, but instead he got stupid video promos, squashed in his one match on Smackdown, and now is back pissing about on NXT, still there is always hope for him, maybe he should get his own Youtube show.

9th Place: Epico (2/10)

Primo’s cousin and Hunico’s other partner in crime managed to take out the Usos this week with him on Smackdown. I like the way that the WWE have played this so far, keeping this potential faction low profile so that they could gradually gain notoriety or fade into the background if they don’t work out. It makes sense to set them up now as well since they can feud with Sin Cara for a couple of months and then if that works out they could go onto a returning Rey Mysterio, which would give him, and possibly Sin Cara, something to do for Wrestlemania.

10th Place: Kevin Nash (1/10)

Big Sexy makes himself sound a bit dodgy this week as he came out to deliver a promo against Triple H. Nash being back in shape could be a good thing, as long as he goes down the Booker T route, if rumours are to be believed, of being able to have short feuds with current guys and putting them over. However when it comes to Nash he might be more inclined to go the Hogan route and actually bury most of the young talent that goes against him. I certainly hope the former is the case, and if it were to be the latter then I hope that his feud with Triple H is his last one and he will leave before he drags any of the guys who are actually still relevant down in favour of pointlessly putting himself over.

2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:

1st Place: R-Truth (190/320) – 1st Place: The Miz (713/1320)

2nd Place: The Miz (169/320) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (666/1320)

3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (157/320) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1320)

4th Place: Mark Henry (153/320) – 4th Place: Cody Rhodes (389/1320)

5th Place: Cody Rhodes (152/320) – 5th Place: Jack Swagger (379/1320)

6th Place: Christian (136/320) – 6th Place: Alberto Del Rio (352/1320)

7th Place: Wade Barrett (101/320) – 7th Place: Dolph Ziggler (335/1320)

8th Place: C.M. Punk (88/320) – 8th Place: Wade Barrett (303/1320)

9th Place: Jack Swagger (71/320) – 9th Place: Sheamus (294/1320)

10th Place: Dolph Ziggler (54/320) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1320)

Weekly Filler:

The Face Off: NXT Fail – Now there is no prize and its been going on for ages.

This is a simple point about the announcement that next year NXT and Superstars will be cancelled. Cast your mind all the way back to the start of this series when it was announced that the winner would earn a place on NXT season six, a shit prize to begin with and now one that the contestants can’t even get because there won’t be a season six. Of course it’s not like the other prizes were anything to sing about, after all Wade Barrett got a title shot but wasn’t allowed to win at the last second, then Kaval got a shot and failed before getting fired. Kaitlyn has barely done anything since winning, and Johnny Curtis, well the less we say about him the better. You could argue that the NXT competitors only have themselves to blame since most of the actually talented guys have gone on to have at least some role in the company proper, but still with pointless and annoying challenges and no real structure can you really blame them for failing? NXT really is the embodiment of the WWE at the moment, something that started out so promising and then faltered because the people upstairs lost interest in it and began treating it like a joke. Bottom line is that while the top people are untouchable they will always pass on the responsibility and not be held accountable for their actions so that they don’t care whether their ideas truly succeed or fail, they just want to collect their pay slip.

Face the Facts: TNA’s MMA Partnering

As of late it’s not often that I sing the praises of TNA, however I have to say that they are actually being smart by partnering with Belladonna so as to get both companies some exposure to mutual fanbases. A lot of times a partnership like this would be ineffective or even counter-productive, but TNA bringing out spokespersons to sit in on commentary and have each other put both companies over is a nice way to combine the world’s of wrestling and MMA. As long as they tow the line of MMA is more skill based and TNA is more out-there entertaining and avoid the whole ’wrestling is fake’ bollocks then things should work out just fine…but then again this is TNA.

On the Rise: The Return of William Regal

This was just a great treat on Superstars and it’s a shame for anyone who missed it. Of course Regal ended up putting Bryan over but his reaction from the Liverpool crowd was immense and it showed that Regal still holds a real presence in the minds of the fans. The student versus teacher angle of the match was nice and the short interval in Regal’s music where they played his original ‘Real Man’s Man’ theme was great and brought in a real connection between the two since Bryan is always going on about being manly. In the end this was just a classic match between two mat technicians, with a bit of sentimental value thrown in and it was enjoyable. It’s just a shame that other veterans like Kevin Nash can’t take this classy route and instead try to steal the spotlight to squeeze in another lacklustre fifteen minutes of fame in their already decorated career, what else do you have to prove?

Flat-Footed: Liver-pool and Scousers

This was just embarrassing. When Cole said that stuff in that typical ignorant American ‘I have no idea how things are really pronounced and I can’t be bothered to find out even though it’s my job’ attitude it just made me depressed. Now you could claim that Cole was just playing up to his heel character, but I don’t think so, I think he was honestly trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about and that is just sad. The WWE is doomed in terms of announcing, doomed I tell you!

That’s all for this week. Turning Point was this Sunday and maybe with it there will come some interesting developments in TNA, but as of now the company seems hard pressed to even be bothered to come up with a sustainable storyline for the main event, let alone actually pull itself together as a company. The WWE continues to trundle along, making mistakes and more importantly missing opportunities that they set up for themselves. Hopefully Survivor Series will be something to watch as it is one of the big four PPVs, but for now we will just have to wait and see. This is James Wright signing off.

Source: wrestlingtruth.com