CB's World: 10 Thoughts on the Summer of 2012 in Pro Wrestling -- WWE, TNA, Raw 1000, Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, John Cena and More

CB’s World: 10 Thoughts on the Summer of 2012 in Pro Wrestling — WWE, TNA, Raw 1000, Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, John Cena and More

by CB on September 24, 2012

Good morning and Happy Autumnal Equinox everyone! That’s right, over the weekend we said goodbye to summer and hello to fall, and so I thought it would be an apropos time to take a look at some of the events that transpired during the Summer of 2012 in professional wrestling and see where this conversation takes us. After all, from WWE Monday Night Raw 1000 and three-hour Raws to a disappointing SummerSlam PPV and solid episodes of TNA Impact Wrestling LIVE, there has been a whole lot to digest when it comes to Rasslin’ … so let’s discuss, shall we?

Oh, and please feel free to fill in any blanks I miss or leave comments with your own thoughts on the Summer of 2012.

CB’s World: 10 Thoughts on the Summer of 2012 in Pro Wrestling

Before I proceed, let me say I excluded Jerry Lawler from this list because it was not a storyline development. I am thrilled that Lawler seems to be recovering well and like everyone else, I hope that the King can get well soon.

1. Remember when we were all writing and talking about what THAT BIG STORYLINE of the Summer of 2012 would be? Well, as it stands right now, you can actually make a case for the emergence of Team Friendship — Kane and Daniel Bryan — as the most successful story of the summer. Some people will say it’s Triple H’s “retirement” or CM Punk holding on to the WWE Championship all summer / enlisting the help of Paul Heyman, but for my money the entire Kane and Daniel Bryan saga has been absolutely golden.

2. Oh, and you know who helped kickstart this whole thing between Team Friendship. You guessed it, AJ. That one’s for you Blair.

3. On the TNA side of things, the biggest story to come out of the Summer of 2012 is the emergence of Austin Aries as the TNA World Heavyweight Champion. This all happened at TNA’s Destination X PPV, when Aries gave up his X Division Title for a chance to face Bobby Roode for the biggest prize in TNA. And, of course, Aries delivered on multiple levels in this “make or break” match:

TNA Destination X – Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, Part 1:

TNA Destination X – Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, Part 2:

This was a landmark moment for Aries and a great move by TNA — one of several they had over the summer — and the best part is that the belt wasn’t hot-shotted back to Roode, enabling Aries to still be the champ right now as I type this.

4. Speaking of TNA, another development I’ve thoroughly enjoyed is the continued brilliance that Bully Ray has shown with his character. I am very happy that Ray re-upped with TNA for two years so he can continue his great character work, and I especially loved the chemistry that Ray had with Joseph Park throughout this summer. Here’s my favorite moment, when Bully Ray beat the blood out of Park, only to get a surprising Black Hole Slam from for his troubles:

5. How sad is it that the best thing to come out of these three-hour episodes of Monday Night Raw is this?

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE that promo spot, but the actual week to week execution of a three-hour Raw product must be painstaking for WWE, and it’s certainly a laborious task to watch 3-plus hours when much of the extra time has been used for filler and commercials rather than anything of actual substance that could have added to the product being presented.

6. Speaking of three-hour Raws, the first installment of this new era was (of course) the 1000th episode of Monday Night Raw, a.k.a. Raw 1000. At the end of this landmark event, the following development occurred right before our watching eyes:

And at the Night of Champions PPV, we were reminded that CM Punk “has beef” with “Dwayne” when the WWE Champion delivered the Rock Bottom to John Cena during their title match:

Clearly, this whole Punk vs. Rock vs. Cena saga is actually the biggest storyline of the summer in WWE’s eyes, though I still think Team Friendship has been executed much better overall (see Thought 1).

But hey, I’ll give WWE credit for the slow burn here when it comes to The Rock vs. CM Punk, although they have no choice with Rocky not really being at Vince’s beck and call like the others.

Let me reiterate that I just hope this leads to CM Punk vs. The Rock ONE ON ONE for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble … and that Punk retains.

7. Speaking of which, the John Cena vs. CM Punk part of this equation with The Rock removed for the time-being has been up and down this summer to say the least. This Punk heel turn just seems forced … and that’s with Punk being incredible on the microphone and now having Paul Heyman to back him up. As I said after Raw 1000, I would have preferred Punk to stay the way he was and not turn completely. After all, Punk’s initial claim that the WWE Championship should have been the main focus instead of John Cena vs. was legitimate, and I think it would have been more interesting to keep Punk as Cena’s antagonist without trying to make EVERYONE hate him.

8. Speaking of HATE, don’t even get me started on SummerSlam again.

And if I had to pick a NEW BIG FOUR PPVs for WWE — meaning the four PPVs each year that I personally think are the most worthwhile to watch — they would be as follows:

January: Royal Rumble
February: Elimination Chamber
April: WrestleMania
July: Money In The Bank

Notice how three of the four PPVs all fall under WWE’s “Road To WrestleMania” period from January through April where they seem to really try to put their best feet forward. I then chose Money In The Bank because over the past two years MITB has been a MUST-SEE event, and I feel like this PPV does two things really well: 1. It has the best of all the gimmick matches built in, those being the Money In The Bank Ladder matches; and 2. The results of the two gimmick matches built into the show have serious title implications that are fun to both predict and then watch unfold.

What would your BIG FOUR be these days? Sound off in the comments sections below.

9. Let me close out with something fun, my two favorite guilty pleasures of the Summer of 2012 in pro wrestling:

First up, and I can’t be the ONLY one who thinks this, but I kind of liked the whole Heath Slater vs. Legends segments that transpired this summer. It was fun to see guys like VADER and Sid and DDP come back to Raw for these nostalgic little stints, and you know something, Slater sold this stuff like a champ:

10. Lastly, with or without the recently departed AW and even though they were bumped off Night of Champions for Team Friendship, I still have a soft spot for The Prime Time Players and their whole “MILLIONS OF DOLLARS!” schtick. There’s even a compilation out there on YouTube that was posted by one of their ~~family members~~ biggest fans:

And thus concludes my 10 Thoughts on the Summer of 2012 in the world of professional wrestling. As stated earlier, please fill in those blanks and share your own thoughts in the comments section below.

That’s all from me — CB.

Oh, wait, I almost forgot:

11. Dear TOUT:

I don’t care if Brock Lesnar announces he’s quitting WWE through you or Sheamus proves he can really BE A STAR by stealing Alberto Del Rio’s car. Your value is NEVER going to be worth anything more than the price of a 1987 Topps Billy Hatcher baseball card on eBay.

Actually, let me correct that: My apologies to Billy Hatcher.

Regards,
CB

===============

Okay, NOW I’m done, and I must say this was a whole lot of fun to put together.

As always, thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the Comments section — CB.

Tags: AJ, aj lee, alberto del rio, Austin Aries, Bobby Roode, Brock Lesnar, Bully Ray, CB's World, cm punk, Daniel Bryan, Destination X, Heath Slater, impact, Jerry "the King" Lawler, Jerry Lawler, john cena, Joseph Park, kane, Paul Heyman, Prime Time Players, Raw, Raw 1000, sheamus, Smackdown, Summer of 2012, Team Friendship, The Prime Time Players, The Rock, TNA, TNA World Heavyweight Championship, Tout, triple h, WWE, wwe championship

CB

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CB is an Editor for Pulse Wrestling and an original member of the Inside Pulse writing team covering the spectrum of pop culture including pro wrestling, sports, movies, music, radio and television.

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http://www.examiner.com/pro-wrestling-in-national/mark-satrang Mark Satrang

Good stuff Chris, but there was NO big summer angle of 2012. From 2007 until 2011 you absolutely knew WWE’s agenda. From Vince is dead/Vince’s kid in 2007, Vince’s money in 2008, Trump buys the place in 2009, The Nexus in 2010 and then the Summer of Punk in 2011 it was evident. This summer was a lot of half assed things with no major breakthrough. Arguably if there was one it would just have to be the whole RAW 1000 and then kick over to the three hour shows.
Mike Gojira

I’d have to claim that this year was the Summer of TNA. That company went though a major overhaul and has impressed me by stepping up their game.
http://twitter.com/BlairADouglas Blair A. Douglas

AJ booked Bryan and Kane in addition to herself? That girl is a machine.

Anyway, good article. Especially agree about the Punk heel turn being very forced.
CB40

Always good to hear from you Mark. As I alluded to in Thought 6, Punk attacking The Rock at Raw 1000 was their idea of THAT BIG STORYLINE of 2012, but it’s just hard to sustain that when one of the key people in that saga isn’t wrestling full-time anymore.
CB40

LOL Blair, AJ didn’t BOOK the storyline, but her interactions with Kane and Bryan during the Love Rectangle storyline (which included Punk) led to the whole Anger Management sessions and ultimately Team Friendship.
CB40

This I agree with. TNA did do a solid job with the live shows and I don’t think many people can complain about Austin Aries being their very deserving World Champion.
Zork

This summer was death for WWE in my opinion, terrible. Dolph Ziggler won Money in the Bank, that’s cool and I’m happy for him, he’s one of my favorites on the current roster. Daniel Bryan has gotten a lot of exposure and opportunities for character centric work, I’m fine with that too because he’s also a favorite of mine. But to me a lot of the storylines and feuds going on were just trash, and still are in my opinion.

As I’ve made it known before, I don’t watch TNA but I’ll agree that Kane and Daniel Bryan teaming up is probably the best thing out of the Summer. It’s so bad it’s good.
http://wrestling.insidepulse.com CB

I think death is a little too strong of a word, considering the global phenomenon WWE is. I can see it being harder and harder to watch for folks like us, but that doesn’t mean they are in bad shape in any way in terms of their marketplace dominance or their ability to keep their pockets lined.

But yes, Team Friendship FTW this summer.
CB40

I think death is a little too strong of a word, considering the global phenomenon WWE is. I can see it being harder and harder to watch for folks like us, but that doesn’t mean they are in bad shape in any way in terms of their marketplace dominance or their ability to keep their pockets lined.
But yes, Team Friendship FTW this summer.
Zork

Well I essentially meant “death” as in the quality of what’s going on on my TV sucks a lot, not so much that WWE the company is suffering…but I could argue that they are in some way or another.

I’m frustrated and apathetic about both Main Event storylines right now. There’s practically nothing going on in the midcard as usual other than D-Bry and Kane…people just go out there and do things…and sometimes some thing will happen as a result of what happened previously…most of the time nothing will happen instead.

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about the midcard though, I’ll freely admit I’ve been completely out of the loop for two months now. That’s just how I see it.
http://twitter.com/BlairADouglas Blair A. Douglas

“Death” is not accurate at all, but yeah, I’m with Zork. WWE is unwatchable for me right now. The biggest thing for me above everything else is just how predictable everything is. It’s unreal. Add to that that they’re trying to force Shaemus on people, rather than letting Bryan, an actual breakout star, carry a show, AND force booing Punk on people? And they add an extra hour to the show just to show more ads for the show you’re already watching? This is why people like me read recaps and YouTube after the fact if it seems like there’s something worth watching.

As for TNA, the only show I saw recently was No Surrender, and that show was ATROCIOUS.
CB40

Daniel Bryan and Kane carried SmackDown! last week, it was the best episode of the year and they were the ones in the opening / closing slots.
Pingback: Wrestling Video Site » WWE News: Big Show to be Cena’s replacement at Hell in a Cell? – Examiner.com
CB40

You think you’re apathetic now, wait until you read the SmackDown spoilers…
James A

The main event scene on SmackDown sucks, it’s true. But all of a sudden there’s a tag team division again! And things are – gasp! – looking pretty damn promising in that respect! :)
Blair A. Douglas

James, that’s a horrible thing for you to say. Your man Shaemus is in the main event scene! It’s what you waited for! Show some loyalty man! He needs your support – now more than ever!
James A

Not even HBK could have made four ppv matches against Del Rio interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I like both guys, but neither is anywhere NEAR interesting enough to make a four month feud halfway interesting. Their last match promised some intrigue at least, but all interest was lost the moment WWE nixed the “Brogue kick is illegal” storyline moments before the opening bell!
And now the poor old Sheamus has a Cell match against… well, read the spoilers. It won’t be pretty.

So yes, the SmackDown main event scene is a problem to say the least. WWE need to make some more top-level heels pronto.
http://twitter.com/BlairADouglas Blair A. Douglas

All right, I’ll bite. WHO could they put on SmackDown with Shaemus and make it interesting?
Cynical Bastard

Apparently i’m in the minority. The only problem I have with the Sheamus/ADR feud is that it’s been one sided. If ADR hadn’t lost decisively every single match, it would have been more interesting, IMHO.

Show is guaranteed to kill any WHC interest that there might have been, so let’s look @ other possible contenders (restricting our options to the ‘official’ SD roster:

…
Interesting. Apparently my attempt to rebut your comment will be thwarted by the fact that WWE.com no longer divides their roster by ‘brand’. So, going alphabetically, counting the wrestlers whom I ASSUME to be SD material…

Christian: A veteran who always seems to pull a decent match out of anyone he’s with, win or lose. What’s the deal, is he injured again and I missed it?

Cody Rhodes: Assuming he wasn’t already involved in a tag team angle, Rhodes is serviceable on the mic and in the ring.

Dolph Ziggler: The current MITB holder for the blue brand, always puts on a good match, although throwing him in straight up would ruin the heel cash-in angle, unless they’d want to capitalize on the cheers he’s been getting recently and turn him.

…Apparently, after that, all I’m left with is another of your favorites:

Wade Barrett: Assuming that he didn’t have a suck-ass finisher after his return.

So… um… yeah. The current SD main event scene blows donkey balls.
CB40

Frustrating, isn’t it? ;)
flamingwombat

I can understand the reasons for not being into the extended Sheamus/Del Rio feud, but no matter one’s feelings on the feud, you have to admit that all the matches themselves have been good. It’s a shame the writers didn’t add some sizzle to that steak.
James A

Agreed. Ziggler and Kofi tend to have good matches too, but there comes a point where you’ve just got to say, chaps, enough is enough. Either go somewhere with this or stop repeating the match ad nauseum!
Now the feud is over and both guys are back in exactly the same positions they were before. Nothing has been gained by the feud, neither character has really been developed… all that’s changed is that Del Rio looks more like a jobber-to-the-stars than ever before.
flamingwombat

It’s a shame because Del Rio is very good in the ring, good on the mic, wrestles a style different from the other heavyweights, and is one of of the only roster members able to draw actual heel heat. It doesn’t seem like he’d be hard to book properly, but they sure are failing now. They seemed to have the right idea when he first came in: they booked him strong against Mysterio and he just kept beating (often submitting) other upper-carders to the point that his winning of the Rumble didn’t feel misguided at all. It makes one wonder how Edge’s sudden retirement and the subsequent booking changes ended up messing up Del Rio’s ascent. Not that that’s an excuse for the ensuing year-plus misuse.

It’s also weird that they would give us a 4 month feud and then NOT blow it off at Hell in the Cell. For the first time since HitC became its own PPV, the timing was right for the Cell to come into play.