Category: Professional Wrestling

Lesnar Humiliated Yet Again

Lesnar looking defeated and humiliated.
Goldberg quickly eliminated Lesnar after another spear.

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

If at first you don’t succeed, try again. That’s how the old saying is supposed to work, but unfortunately, Brock Lesnar rushed Goldberg like a fool.

He was quickly eliminated after being speared.

When Paul Heyman told Michael Cole that it was one of those things that could either make a person even better than they were or even destroy them, it appears that Goldberg is the one person who can cause the Beast Incarnate to lose his cool and ultimately lose a match. Could Goldberg be the man who Lesnar can’t overcome?

That seems to be the question as far as this year’s Wrestlemania is concerned.

If the man with the spear and Jackhammer can manage to beat Lesnar with one more encounter, then that would make him legendary. It would also put him in the Hall of Fame. The reason why Goldberg didn’t win the Royal Rumble is because he honestly doesn’t need another title reign.

After all, he’s the man who put a stop to the Beast Incarnate in less than two minutes.

If the man who humiliated Lesnar can be the one who got away, that could be one story that’s reminisced over for decades to come.

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It’s the Kevin Owens Show!

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

Kevin Owens raises the Universal Title high in the air.
Kevin Owens raises the WWE Universal Championship high. Image based on screencap from Dailly DDT.

Last night on WWE Monday Night Raw, Kevin Owens became the Universal Champion with the help of Triple H. The move shocked the audience in a pleasant way. Future rivalries are set up while Owens can have a moment of glory.

Let’s hope it lasts longer than a mere moment.

After all, Jim Cornette himself had issues with Owens when he wrestled as Kevin Steen in Ring of Honor and said at one point that he would be limited to small audiences for the rest of his life. In this case, it’s a good thing he was wrong. This Reddit thread shines some light on that conflict.

The cool part is that Kevin Owens is not your typical muscle bound Fabio type.

In today’s changing world, stereotypes become especially suspect. The muscle-bound types aren’t the only ones who are athletic. The husky ones can go as well.

For all the athleticism in the world, having a functional brain can help when it comes to taking advantage of opportunities.

The point being? Owens is a douchebag, but he’s an amazing douchebag. He plays the part so well, especially when he screamed, “YYyyyyyyeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” after winning the title last night.

Funny can make money in the right circumstances.

So let’s hope that Owens holds onto that championship for a while and he defends it, making it legit. After all, having a title changing hands multiple times like a hot potato is a good way to torpedo any possible prestige.

Summer Slam 2016

Brock Lesnar laughing; colors inverted.
He does what he wants! Original image courtesy of Sportskeeda.

Thomas Holbrook II | The *Nixed Report

Summer Slam happened last night, and this year didn’t disappoint. A new champion was crowned, Cena was out-Cenaed, and Brock Lesnar has shown the world that he does what he wants.

The Universal Championship has potential, though the belt may need a different design.

It makes me wonder if Smackdown will have a Galactic Championship, with both champions vying for the number one contender spot for the WWE Heavyweight Championship.

As long as championship matches are the main event from here on out, things will continue to improve for the Standford based company. Pushing them to the middle of the card and onto the backburner only cheapens them and makes them meaningless.

Speaking of championships, let’s also hope that AJ Styles builds momentum to a championship run of some sort.

Contrary to appearances, the Phenomenal One is older than John Cena, and has more miles on him. Slow building of him towards a championship run will cost the WWE a huge opportunity at ratings. Styles doesn’t have as much time as others, so they may want to speed things up while he’s capable of performing like he’s still in his prime.

Speaking of which, let’s not have another Styles/Cena matchup; this horse doesn’t need to be beaten anymore.

The women’s division needs to get their act together. Wellness violations are not a good way of building said division. Also, if Eva Marie does have a legitimate reason why she shouldn’t have been suspended, then appropriate documentation should be shown to the audience demonstrating that she had a valid prescription in the first place.

Speaking of which, since Brock Lesnar is a part time performer, the Wellness Policy doesn’t apply to him, which presents an interesting opportunity.

I wasn’t able to watch the full main event due to other obligations, but I did read about the results. A TKO ruling seems to be building momentum for The Beast Incarnate. Could this mean another build as a monster heel until next year’s WrestleMania?

Could that momentum entail a rematch against Goldberg himself as teased by this 2K17 promo?

After all, Lesnar did declare that he was next.

Since Lesnar devastated Orton and then Shane McMahon, could it be possible that he’ll continue to reign down destruction on the WWE Universe until Goldberg is called upon to take him down at the Show of Shows?

Who knows, but speculation is fun at this point, especially if it turns out that a second WrestleMania match occurs to make up for the previous one.

Either way, things are going to get interesting.

WWE’s Subtle Messenger

By Thomas Holbrook II

I recently subscribed to the WWE Network, and thus far, it seems to be worth $10 a month.  I was able to watch most of Payback last night, which brings me to today’s topic.

Bray Wyatt: The Eater of Worlds.
The Eater of Worlds in the WWE.

Let’s talk storylines.

Pro wrestling is the most unique form of theater as it requires athleticism along with the ability to improvise in front of an immense crowd.  The Shield didn’t reunite, but there’s a good reason.

It would have been too obvious.

One of the overlooked elements in WWE today is none other than Bray Wyatt.  He has had a history of being subtle.  As a so called “master manipulator,” he’s able to misdirect the audience into thinking he’s headed in one direction while it turns out not to be the case.

For instance, before his match with Ryback, viewers would find out why The Big Guy was challenged; he was simply in Wyatt’s way.  Wyatt’s way of what?

If one read the shirt he was wearing during the match while remembering the entrance, things may begin to make sense.

The overall message of the shirt went along the lines of, “Follow the light….. find your way home.”  While The Shield didn’t reunite last night, a couple of individuals did before the event.

Eric Rowen and Luke Harper.

There are plenty of members in the main WWE roster, and Ryback was getting more attention as of late.  Could that have been interfereing with Wyatt’s attempt to reunite his clan?  Furthermore, could he have been using the match in question to get the attention of Rowen and Harper?

Bear in mind that Wyatt has been playing the subtle game since the beginning of this year.  When Dolph Ziggler performed The Famouser on him, he no-sold it.  Then came the vignettes.  Then came the coffin….. except it happened over several weeks.

So let’s speculate for a moment.  Since a reunification of the Wyatt Family is being presented as something that isn’t as obvious, then when would be a good time for it to take place?

There was a slow build of three months to Wrestlemania 31 against The Undertaker.  Going by that time frame, would it be safe to say that at least three months from now, it may take place (assuming it does at all)?

After all, Summerslam would be the perfect venue to rebuild a faction that could act as competition against the more monopolisic Authority.  What are your thoughts?

Friday Epic Fail: Wrecking Ball

Spiked wrecking ball... let's see Cyrus ride that!
Things that make you sterile in a hell of a hurry.

By Thomas Holbrook II

I’ll be up front about this.  I don’t care about Miley Cyrus and her twerking, let alone her song “Wrecking Ball.”  So she’s rebelled against all the blind Hannah Montana fans and Disney.

I can totally understand that.

But acting a fool on a piece of construction/destruction equipment is not going to help matters, especially when other celebrities try to cash in.

For instance:

Hulk Hogan is sponsoring a web hosting company with a litany of various features.  I’m not so sure a man in his 60’s wearing a thong is the right thing to do in terms of marketing, but whatever floats his boat, right?

Let’s see, I can either go with a hosting company that has a bunch of features at a competitive price or one that’s sponsored by a creepy dude wearing hair extensions, a thong, and sporting a less fertile sex organ due to steroids.

I’m thinking I’ll pass on Hostamania.

But it gets worse….. much worse.

At least it was an actual porn star who wasn’t shrunk by steroids.  Still, a fat dude in his tighty whiteys exploiting such a horrible song is bound to leave one sleepless at night, and not in a pleasurable way.

So you see, it’s not the song from Cyrus herself that makes things so painful.  It’s creepy elderly men wanting to get their rocks off while younger kids are busy throwing up.

Thanks Miley.  No.  Really.

Note: Featured image from here under this license.

Wednesday Weekly Links: January 15, 2014

Information Awareness graphic.
Don’t blindly trust something that says it’s open. Trust, but verify!  Image is part of the public domain.

It isn’t too far into 2014, and we’re already experiencing some interesting turn of events.  Thomas Holbrook II is now writing for Muktware once again.  His focus will be on Chromebooks, Chrome OS, and other topics, such as civil liberties online.

Speaking of civil liberties, that is one topic that will see coverage in this week’s links.  We have the usual developments in free and open source software, but also from a few other fronts as well.

Unix

  • Don’t Blindly Trust Open Source, verify it: Mozilla Calls for Protection from NSA Spying (Muktware.com): Swapnil Bhartiya, founder and editor of Muktware, writes about the NSA and how the availability of a project’s source code isn’t immune from tampering, especially if developers don’t pay enough attention.
  • ZaReason’s Zeto a Part of their Latest Offerings (ZaReason): Though the company has been criticized for their tablet, the California-based company keeps quietly releasing new products, such as the Zeto.  It’s powered by the newest generation of Intel processors as well as powerful NVIDIA graphics.
  • Ars Technica on Verizon vs FCC (Ars Technica): The courts have invalidated most of the Net Neutrality rules put out by the FCC.  ISP’s can’t be treated like phone companies.  Only time will tell whether ISP’s will start to throttle traffic in order to prevent competition throughout various Internet-based industries.

 

Overlooked Pop Culture

  • Fukushima Radiation Hits San Francisco? (Kill Your TV YouTube Channel):  According to a test with a Geiger counter, radiation levels at a San Francisco beach were discovered to be at abnormally high levels.  Is this from Fukushima?
  • Superbabies? (Mail Online): A Chinese firm is apparently trying to see if one can map the genes of those who are especially skilled in Math.  Imagine picking out the smartest embryos and combining other good genes with them.  Interesting indeed.
  • Daniel Bryan Has a Concussion? (24Wrestling.com): Though not seen on WWE’s website, it seems that Daniel Bryan suffered a concussion during the cage match from the last Monday Night Raw.  Again, no official statement has been made on WWE.com.

Throwback Thursday: Jake the Snake Roberts

Jake the Snake Roberts
Photo taken from a screencap of WWE’s Youtube Channel.

By Thomas Holbrook II

On Old School Raw, several legends made guest appearances.  “Double A” Arn Anderson, Sgt Slaughter, DDP, Booker T, and others would help bring back some wonderful memories of WWE.  The one pleasant surprise that ended the show was none other than Jake the Snake Roberts coming out with his customary bag to the dismay of The Shield, a faction that imposes it’s own “brand of justice.”

 

There was more to him than the giant snake.  His ring psychology was so effective, his mic work so extraordinary, that physique didn’t matter.  Here’s a rare piece of footage of him in WCW.

 

There was more to him than the giant snake.  His ring psychology was so effective, his mic work so extraordinary, that physique didn’t matter.  Here’s a rare piece of footage of him in WCW.

The intellectual villain has been a rarity in professional wrestling, and nobody has matched him to date in my humble opinion.  I remember his brief feud with Sting and to this day, it’s a shame that it wasn’t lengthy.

So who is your favorite wrestling legend?  Feel free to sound off in the comments section below.

Throwback Thursday: Jake Roberts VS Randy Savage


What we have here is an example of how pro wrestling used to work, especially in regards to the WWE. The interview segments are absolutely classic, and show how emotions combined with improv-acting can set up the story along with the match itself.

Wednesday Weekly Links for November 13, 2013

Welcome back to Wednesday Weekly Links, where we scour the Internet and other sources for news items that are often overlooked.  This week, we focus on innovation in computer software and a change at a major software company as well as pro wrestling, a government agency, and a really strange 911 call.

Unix

  • Microsoft Drops Reward and Curve System (MaximumPC): Microsoft is scrapping the curve system, because it caused a bit of tension between employees.  Emphasis is going to be placed on team work and employee growth and development.
  • Fedora 20 Goes Beta (ZDNet): Nicknamed “Heisenbug,” the beta release of version 20 of Red Hat’s community oriented operating system brings enhancements to virtualization and clouds, updated development software, GNOME 3.10, and an added emphasis on the ARM architecture.  Hat tip to Steven J. Vaughn-Nicols
  • More AMD Patches Released (Phoronix): Those who follow hardware-based encryption solutions and use Linux may be jumping for joy at this.  AMD has released drivers for a Cryptographic Coprocessor.  A variety of encryption standards is supported through said driver including SHA and AES among others.  Hat tip to Michael Larabel.

 

Overlooked Pop Culture