Inside Pulse Wrestling | THE RAGER! – What’s Happening at No Way Out (Dolph Ziggler, CM Punk, John Cena)

THE RAGER! – What’s Happening at No Way Out (Dolph Ziggler, CM Punk, John Cena)

by Chris Sanders on June 13, 2012

It happens quite rarely that I’m so jazzed after an episode of Raw to the point where I completely forget that there’s a Pay Per View this Sunday. But you can’t fault me for that when this 3-Hour raw gave me this and this but most importantly this, right? That’s what I thought.

YouTube Pre-Show:
Brodus Clay vs David Otunga
The thing about this is the fact that since Brodus was attack by Big Show, commentators are finally talking about Brodus’ undefeated streak which could mean 1 of 2 things: They’re gonna continue to build on that streak or have him lose really soon. With that being said, I don’t see them having Brodus drop his streak on youtube but if he does, he doesn’t lose cleanly.

Divas Championship:
Layla(c) vs Beth Phoenix
What’s sad about this match is that it seems obligatory because neither has been brought up much in the past month (minus whatever they’re doing with Beth to keep Ricardo on the screen). I will say this, the moment Beth gets the title back, Kharma’s return will soon follow…it has to be soon, right? Right?

Intercontinental Championship:
Christian(c) vs Cody Rhodes
Of course the obligatory statement needs to be made that I’m hoping for a Cody loss for a main event run…but again, that’s what I’ve been hoping for since around this time last year. I did have a strange thought cross my mind that WWE would make Christian drop the belt for appearing on TNA (which wouldn’t make sense seeing as how WWE allowed it and was undoubtedly part of the WWE/TNA agreement to let Flair on the HoF ceremony…but still, WWE is pretty messed up and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pull that). Not saying that’s going to happen, I just had the thought.

World Heavyweight Championship:
Sheamus(c) vs Dolph Ziggler
This match a little bitter sweet because I am a lot more excited about this than I was about Sheamus vs Del Rio. Del Rio just doesn’t seem to have anything going for him at the moment and it was difficult to get behind him and then you have Ziggler, who we were expecting to get back into full-on top-tier singles action, get the chance after Del Rio’s injury. Of course, you’ve gotta feel for Del Rio because he’s had a string of bad luck from an injury standpoint and you never wish that on anybody. That being said, Sheamus seems pretty middle-of-the-road as far as fan reaction so I wouldn’t be completely surprised if he dropped the belt. However, with Ziggler just now being added to the match, I have my doubts they would have Ziggler win. I suppose it all is determined by what WWE’s plans were and how much those plans have changed due to suspensions and injuries. Either way, I’m excited for this match for one simple reason.

WWE Championship:
CM Punk(c) vs Daniel Bryan vs Kane
It’s no surprise that this match the one I’m most looking forward to but for different reasons for a Punk/Bryan match. Obviously Punk and Bryan are reason enough to be excited but then you throw in some of this and that brings my interest of the uncertain into play. First off, Kane is an underrated legend that had the unfortunate task of always being in Taker’s shadow and yet still managed to make a name for himself. Secondly, put Kane in the right match with the right opponent(s) and he will rise to the occasion. I believe this could be that match, both Punk and Bryan are the kind of wrestlers that make themselves and their opponents look golden and are perfect opposite of Kane. You add in the wildcard AJ and this match is a genuine pick ‘em…no idea what her crazy motive is gonna be. From a business standpoint, Punk has been champ for quite some time and there’s been plenty of reports that WWE wants Punk’s reign to mean something and for it to be huge and then you add rumors of a new title belt to debut at the 1000th episode…essentially ushering in a new era of the company, a new era that obviously has Punk at the reigns (pun unintended). That being said, I don’t believe the company will have Punk drop the belt until maybe the end of the summer.

Cage Match:
John Cena vs Big Show
This one is simple. This is a PPV with a cage match and very rarely do PPV cage matches end with a pinfall/submission/walking out the front door, it’s almost always won by climbing over the top. Big Show is going over the top of anything. Sure, he got to the top of the cage (with a hole cut in the cage so he could get his foot into it…go back and look at the tape) against Daniel Bryan and Mark Henry, but could you actually envision him dropping to the floor? Not I…I can’t even see him trying to climb down to the floor slowly. Besides, everything has been tipped in Show’s favor this entire time and that usually means that he’s gonna lose. Cena is gonna win but Vince is still knocked out by the gust of wind coming from Big Show’s fist so the Johnny Ace thing will have a longer life.

Other things to look forward to:
HHH is appearing to just have a chat with everybody. Why he needed to take up time in a PPV instead of Raw is beyond me but a lot of people are speculating a Brock appearance but I wouldn’t get your hopes up…at most, maybe a Heyman sighting (not that I’m complaining). Expect this to plant to seedlings for the Brock/HHH match for SummerSlam.
Another Ryback squash against nobody important but probably between the WWE Championship match and Cena/Show (you all owe me $5 if I’m right).
Something will be done about the Tag Titles seeing as how Truth has a broken foot…I mean, got knocked out by Big Show, maybe have a match between 2 or 3 teams and the winner gets the belt or something…or don’t, I don’t care.

Seems like for the 2nd straight PPV, WWE has my hopes up about a really good/solid PPV but not for the reasons they’re hoping for. Really most people could care less about the Cena/Show/Laurinaitis situation but it didn’t seem to be bad enough to ruin Over the Limit and so I see the same happening with No Way Out.

Final Thought: Last week, the Classy Ring Attire podcast made its Pulse Wrestling debut. As 1/2 of the show, I just wanted to say how excited I am to share this project with all the Pulsers. For those that haven’t checked it out, its simply sitting around with my good friend Joel Leonard and talking about wrestling. We would love to hear from you all and hear your thoughts (good or bad) by emailing us at ClassyRingAttire@gmail.com or following us on twitter where I (or Joel if I have to work) have some fun while watching Raw, PPVs, etc. Also Joel started up our own tumblr if you’re into that kinda thing.
Basically this podcast has been blast to be a part of and now we want all of you to be a part of the fun as well! (Side note, thanks to Jason for all of our awesome images that you see on every CRA post)

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris

The Answer: Seriously, how awesome was it to see Vader? “Infinity” is the answer you’re looking for

Tags: aj lee, Beth Phoenix, brodus clay, christian, cm punk, Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, David Otunga, Dolph Ziggler, HHH, john cena, John Laurinaitis, kane, Kofi Kingston, Layla, No Way Out, R-Truth, Raw, ryback, sheamus, the big show, undertaker, Vader, vince mcmahon, WWE

Chris Sanders

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Chris is a writer from Fayetteville, NC. His flag-ship column "The Rager" is a weekly therapy in which he lets out all of his aggression about the wrestling world...or really the world in general. Chris also a co-host of the Classy Ring Attire podcast along with Joel Leonard. Follow us on twitter @CRAttire

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http://twitter.com/biscuitman18 Jeff Heatherly

Some comments…

-I’ve been wondering the same thing about Christian. (I guess it’s time to come clean about this…) I’ve been watching TNA for about three months now. (David Lagana sent me.) As soon as I saw that Slammiversary Flashback clip of his debut, my immediate thought was…”Well…he’s pretty much screwed now.”

-Ziggler. Called it. Very excited.

-AJ’s transformation from Ann Perkins to Harley Quinn has been–quite probably–my favorite thing to happen on this show since (oddly enough) the return of Masked Kane. When she leapt into Kane’s arms with that crazy smile on her face…MY BRAIN SHUT DOWN…and that’s all I have to say about that.

-I concur that the reign of Johnny Ace is probably not ending here, but I really think they need to get rid of him by…I’d imagine SummerSlam. There’s a difference between a good villain and…whatever he is. I genuinely HATE him…and I don’t mean that in the way one is supposed to hate an evil character. I’ve genuinely fantasized about seeing him killed on live television. (Super dark…but 100% true.) I never thought something on this show could make me turn the channel faster than Michael Cole in super-heel mode…and then…there he was. A good villain shouldn’t genuinely enrage you like that. CASE IN POINT: Vickie, who I adore, and you know why?–Because she’s a CHARACTER…and a very entertaining and competently performed one at that. Not only is the Johnny Ace character an inexcusable prick from which I glean ZERO entertainment value; he’s a terrible actor, which just makes it 1000 times worse, particularly for a weirdo like me who watches this show for the theatricality of it all. I have to assume there’s a number of people who feel this way, and if that’s the case, it does more harm to this show than good…and I can only hope someone in creative (maybe even Vince himself) has taken notice. (Not to mention…can we come up with a new top-tier storyline that DOESN’T involve a villainous authority figure?–We get it. Eric Bischoff working with the nWo and Austin vs. McMahon were GREAT. THAT ONE TIME. With the eleventy billion iterations of this story we’ve seen since, the returns have been more and more diminishing.)

…Sorry for the rant. Thanks for the name-drop on the show last week. Keep up the good work, sir.
Nassar

Great point about the overuse of the evil authority figure. I don’t even want the face authority figure. Teddy Long made me as angry with his shitnanagens as Johnny Ace does for you. With all that’s going on in the NFL and how Goddell is handling the league as just a respected leader taking charge they should play on that.

Go back to the leadership style of a Jack Tunney. He’s not good or bad, and he’s not on TV all the time. He’s just….there, and we know it, but it doesn’t have to be a huge part of the story lines.

If they’d just go back to using damn managers again they could have multiple heels in a variety of stories and it could be fun again. And we could get rid of this need to have a stupid GM.
http://www.examiner.com/pro-wrestling-in-national/mark-satrang Mark Satrang

Needed a gif of AJ skipping around Kane too…
Chris Sanders

just seems to make the world a better place
http://twitter.com/Kanta_Mizuno Ryan Alarie

On the Ziggler situation … talk about hitting the lottery. Three seperate unfortunate occurances end up causing all three of Sheamus’ opponents from last PPV to have to sit out this one. And, since Del Rio was the last to go, it wasn’t even obvious, but had it not been for Jericho and Randy being suspended, they likely would have replaced Del Rio when he got injured. However, with all three gone, Ziggler is picked to step up. Either he, or Vicky, is an evil genius ;)

Seriously though, after the third failed attempt at having a Del Rio Vs. Sheamus match for the title (first they needed to appease the fans pissed by Wrestlemania by giving Bryan a real match with Sheamus, then they didn’t trust the two could carry a one on one match, despite having a WWE title match and a ‘main event’ with Cena that are covering the top draw slots anyway), maybe it’s time they accept it’s just not meant to be. Sheamus gets a tepid response, but Ricardo is more over (and has a more coherent feud) than Del Rio. [Also, Ricardo has found Sheamus’ weak point. He must have a high center of gravity, as twice Ricardo has been able to take down Sheamus just by locking his feet together).