10 WWE Questions You Most Want Answered 9

9. Passing Over Reigns For Ambrose

In terms of talent, Dean Ambrose is more talented than Roman Reigns right now. He’s the more experienced of the two wrestlers, plus Ambrose is much better in terms of delivering promos. When it comes to their matches, Ambrose is also superior although Reigns is improving a lot and is no slouch in that regard.
The feeling is that Reigns is going to get a main event push leading to a showdown with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 next year. If that’s the plan they should stick to it. Reigns got picked for a reason and that’s because WWE knows they need future babyface stars. He’s got the size they look, the look they want and the genes from a great wrestling family that will hopefully make him WWE’s next huge superstar.
Ambrose will get his time at the top. It may not be in WrestleMania’s main event next year, but in the end talent rises to the top. Ambrose’s opportunity is going to come. Fans just need to be patient. You can’t push everybody at once.

via www.whatculture.com

10 WWE Questions You Most Want Answered 10

10. The Future Of The Divas Division

From @Raw_0424: What do you think of the divas division moving forward? Any call-ups from NXT that could be interesting? What to do with Emma?

The divas are in a good spot right now because WWE is using them in storylines more than they have in a long time. The success of Total Divas is a big reason for that. That’s why we saw two divas matches at SummerSlam and why the Bella Twins feud is getting so much attention. The Bellas feud isn’t that great, but it’s still good to see the women on TV more often.
There are a number of divas at the NXT level that are ready for the main roster with Charlotte standing out the most. She’s the current NXT Women’s Champion and she may drop the title this week to Bayley, who is also ready. Sasha Banks is another one that has a lot of talent. Alexa Bliss has been really impressive of late. Charlotte will likely be on the main roster within a few months, but all of them have talent.
Emma needs to be re-invented on the main roster a bit. The whole “awkward dancing” gimmick can only take you so far. She needs something more than that or else she’s going to be locked in as a comedy wrestler and that’s not good. What they should do is have somebody get mad at her dancing, then she snaps on that person and see that she’s not a joke after all.
As for the current Divas Champ Paige, I’m a huge fan of hers. She’s got as bright a future as anybody in WWE.


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10 WWE Questions You Most Want Answered

10 WWE Questions You Most Want Answered (Sept 6)

Answering questions about Sting in the NWO, underrated wrestlers, Ambrose/Rollins and more!

The road to WWE Night of Champions continues after a pretty boring week for WWE. There really weren’t any major news stories aside from CM Punk potentially suing WWE down the road. There will be more to that story in the weeks to come.
What’s got people talking this week was how bad Raw was. It was a show full of promos that weren’t very good, short matches that didn’t mean a whole lot and a ridiculous story where John Cena might sue Triple H if he gets taken out of the Night of Champions main event. It’s as if WWE didn’t realize they had five weeks between SummerSlam and NOC, so they had to make up stupid angles where Cena could get removed from NOC even though they ran ads all show long about how he was going to face Brock Lesnar.
What about Smackdown? There were reports that the show was moving to Thursdays starting in October, but now it appears that it’s staying on Friday nights. Perhaps WWE was hesitant to make the move because the NFL has Thursday games every week from September to December If WWE moved to Thursday then they’d be head to head with the NFL juggernaut twice in a week. They might have had more viewers on Thursdays, but they seem content with staying on Fridays.



via www.whatculture.com

9 Most Brutual Matches In WWE History 1

1. Mankind vs The Undertaker – King Of The Ring, June 1998

The selection of this match as the most brutal in WWE’s history will come as no surprise to anybody who has seen it. If you haven’t, you probably should. It’s not only the company’s most brutal match, but one of its most famous. The unforgettable sight of Foley plummeting from the top of the cell structure through the announce table is still used in countless video packages by the WWE to this day (usually begging the viewer not to try this at home). It is truly part of wrestling folklore.
Mick has since claimed that the more dangerous of the two terrible falls he suffered that day was the latter, but everybody remembers the first. With an ungraceful, almost ugly motion, Undertaker grabbed Mankind and carted him clean off the top of the cell. Watching it today it looks impossible – illogical even. The human body shouldn’t be in such a situation, let alone survive it.
The second fall, a chokeslam on top of the structure, actually did more damage to Foley as a panel of the cell roof surprisingly gave way. Undertaker later stated that he thought he’d killed Mick as he crashed into the ring below, the impact dislocating his jaw and driving a tooth through his lip. It must have hurt like hell, not that Foley can remember. He had to watch a tape of the match to write about it in his autobiography.
Watching such matches are something of a guilty pleasure for a wrestling fan. It’s probably for the best that such extreme occurrences are no longer commonplace in WWE programming, but nobody familiar with the contests of this list can surely deny their compelling nature.

9 Most Brutual Matches In WWE History 2

9. Eddie Guerrero vs JBL – Judgement Day, May 2004

It seems illogical to have a match including dozens of chairshots at number three on the list while this match – featuring one of note – is at number two. That’s until you see the chairshot in question. For those unsure about how bleeding works in wrestling, it’s a trick known as ‘blading’. The wrestler
uses a tiny razor to cut himself, usually near the hairline where blood can flow less dangerously and dramatically. So when JBL smashed Eddie with a chair in the main event of Judgement Day, he collapsed to the floor and prepared to blade. The only problem is that he cut himself too deeply.
Way too deeply. I’m not particularly squeamish about blood, but this match was still incredibly difficult to watch. Guerrero lay back and the crowd gasped in horror as blood literally squirted from his forehead onto his chest. Even his opponent seemed unsure about what to do, but they continued the match anyway.

The excessive blood actually made Eddie’s climactic comeback much more dramatic, but everybody would agree that his wellbeing was in serious danger that night.

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3. The Rock vs Mankind – Royal Rumble, January 1999

Surprise! It’s the return of Mick Foley again, this time in his persona of masked lunatic Mankind. It’s important to note that all of Foley’s gimmicks are essentially variations on a very simple theme: deranged psychopath. This match is even more infamous with the benefit of hindsight, now that chairshots to the head are regarded as a cause of serious long-term damage.
In perhaps the most brutal chair-based assault in wrestling history, The Rock handcuffed Mick’s hands behind his back and swung for a home run. Heeding Foley’s pre-match instructions, Rock was relentless in his attack, battering his opponent with headshot after headshot.
While clearly an incredibly brutal bout, this match is also a very poignant one. Immortalised in the highly critical Beyond The Mat wrestling documentary, Rock vs Mankind is notorious for driving Foley’s infant daughter to tears at ringside. It forces an often unconsidered side-effect of wrestling to the fore – the effect such a dangerous profession can have on the performers’ families.
                                                   

9 Most Brutual Matches In WWE History 4

4. Kurt Angle vs Shane McMahon – King Of The Ring, June 2001

A lot of the matches we’ve covered so far are hard to watch – what’s more uncomfortable than seeing professional wrestlers bleed and break themselves in the name of entertainment? Well, how about non-wrestlers doing the same? Shane McMahon had already shown himself to be slightly unhinged after taking a couple of incredibly high falls from the side of the WWE TitanTron, but that didn’t compare to the punishment he received at King of the Ring.
Angle didn’t exactly escape the match unscathed either (actually ending up in hospital once the show was over courtesy of a damaged tailbone). The latter half of the match included a sequence in which Shane was to be hurled through several panes of sugar glass, but Kurt’s back injury meant that he couldn’t get the required power behind the throw to do so. That and the fact they’d bought the wrong type of glass.
At the first attempt, Shane bounced sickeningly off the pane and landed on his head and neck. Angle reportedly wanted to skip to the finish of the match, but Shane insisted that they complete the move. It took Kurt five attempts to throw his opponent through two panes of glass, the last one headfirst. It left both men horribly lacerated, Shane’s forehead in particular coated with blood. In a later interview Angle claimed that he “had a blast”, proving that wrestlers’ minds don’t quite work the way a normal human’s does.

10 Most Brutual Matches In WWE History 5

5. Edge & Christian vs The Dudley Boyz vs The Hardy Boyz – WrestleMania 16, April 2000

Watching this match provides both feelings of nostalgia and perspective. There are a lot of stars in this one; Jeff Hardy and Edge both went on to hold multiple world championships and become faces of the wrestling world, Christian became an internet darling for his underrated in-ring ability, and the others all went on to enjoy established careers in the WWE and TNA. Yet here they are, all newcomers within their first few years of the World Wrestling Federation, dicing with death on the midcard of WrestleMania 2000.
The match is simply too anarchic to summarise in concise fashion. It’s mainly remembered for Jeff’s ungodly dive from the top of a ladder onto a prone Bubba Ray below, but there are too many set pieces of a similarly death-defying nature to count. The six men paved the way for the particular hybrid of high-flying and hardcore action we see all the time in the WWE nowadays. TLC matches, the Money in the Bank PPV, an influx of talent based on bravery and athleticism rather than muscle mass – all changes which can be traced back to this one bout at the turn of the century.
There’s a certain fondness shared between the six men for this match. Bubba Ray recently tweeted commemorating its 14th anniversary, while Edge gleefully revealed D-Von’s unlikely fear of highs on Chris Jericho’s podcast. Although every match on this last can claim to be brutal, not all of them carry the same degree of innovation as this one.
                                                               

9 Most Brutual Matches In WWE History 6

6. Cactus Jack vs Triple H – Royal Rumble, January 2000

Another example of Foley establishing a hot new wrestler as a legitimate superstar came at the first Pay Per View of the new Millennium, the Royal Rumble. Triple H had sporadically held the WWF Championship throughout 1999, but had yet to truly get himself over with the fans as a dominant threat. Foley helped see to that, this time in the guise of his psychotic alter-ego Cactus Jack.
While fire was the crucial ingredient of Foley’s later match with Edge, the weapon of choice here was a sack of thumbtacks. Towards the end of the match Mick emptied the sack out in the middle of the ring. Both men teased moves near the tacks until, in perhaps the most likely outcome, it was Foley himself who took the horrific bump. The crowd came unstuck as Triple H backdropped his poor opponent right onto the tacks, dozens upon dozens embedding themselves in his flesh. The Game then covered Foley and won the match.Just kidding. To everybody’s horror, Mick kicked out and the match continued. It took an even worse blow to end the bout for good, a nightmarish pedigree face-first into the remaining tacks. As if to prove any watching sceptics wrong, the camera caught a number of them clearly sticking out of Foley’s forehead as the referee counted to three.

9 Most Brutual Matches In WWE History 7

7. Mick Foley vs Edge – WrestleMania 22, April 2006

A quick warning here – this is not the only time Mick Foley will feature on this countdown. Unsurprising, I know. Edge’s stock was rising rapidly at this point in his career, his transition from clean-cut babyface to the self-proclaimed “Rated R Superstar” a major success. Despite this, he still needed a match to prove he had the toughness to be regarded as a force at the top of the card. Enter Mick Foley.
Mick had made a career out of breaking bodies, both his opponents’ and his own, and this bout met all the expectations that came with it. All the gruesome Foley hallmarks were there. Barbed wire? Check. Thumbtacks? Check. Bleeding? It would be rude not to. The match was warming up nicely, but things really escalated when Edge’s girlfriend Lita pulled out a bottle of lighter fluid.
A table was propped up outside the ring and set ablaze. Somebody was going through that, but the danger of the sequence which followed shocked just about everybody in the Allstate Arena. Edge speared Foley out of the ring and through the table, amazingly taking the brunt of the blow himself face first. He went on to win the match, his tough-guy credentials proven once and for all. Foley had played his part in establishing a new star, just as he had done many times previously…
                                                         

9 Most Brutual Matches In WWE History 8

8. Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar – WrestleMania 19, March 2003

It would have been the best ending to a WrestleMania ever. Brock Lesnar, the next big thing in wrestling, defeating established champion Kurt Angle for the title…with a shooting star press!? A man of Lesnar’s stature should never be able to execute that move, a full backflip from the top rope onto an opponent below. It’s a feat only pulled off by the industry’s most nimble cruiserweights, yet Lesnar had proven he was capable, performing it in his younger days at the WWE’s developmental facility.

Except he couldn’t. Not two years later in front of 53,000 people at the biggest event in wrestling. The crowd gasped – first in awe, then in horror – as Brock took off from the top rope, rotated slightly, and landed sickeningly on his neck. Nobody would have been surprised if the match had been called off there and then; it was a miracle he was still breathing. The quick-thinking Angle improvised a pinfall attempt, which Lesnar somehow kicked out of.
Summoning the strength from somewhere as his face turned an unhealthy shade of red, Brock hoisted Kurt onto his shoulders, hit the F-5, and ended the match. It was still one of the most awe-inspiring main events ‘Mania had ever seen, but not quite for the reasons intended.

9 Most Brutual Matches In WWE History 2

2. John Cena vs Rob Van Dam – ECW One Night Stand, June 2006

This match is on the list not for the brutality of its content, but of its atmosphere. Rarely has the WWE seen such an outpouring of hatred from a crowd than for John Cena in New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom. Admittedly it was predictable. Cena stood for everything the ECW faithful hated: popular, handsome, successful, clean-cut. He also stood in the way of a true ECW alumnus, the beloved Rob Van Dam, so the poisonous air was a surprise to nobody that night.
On an evening in which Randy Orton had already been punched by a young child on the way to the ring, Cena found himself greeted by a wall of noise – not exactly the cheers he was used to on Raw. As the now-infamous “If Cena Wins We Riot” sign waved in the background, the WWE champion removed his t-shirt and threw it into the crowd. It came almost immediately back to him. He tried again, and again it was returned with interest. The message was clear: we don’t want you here, you’re not our kind.
Thankfully he didn’t win; there was no riot. Instead he masterfully took everything the crowd threw at him and used it to goad them further, each successful manoeuvre greeted by a groan or boo, until RVD’s eventual victory threatened to blow the roof off. Although the antithesis of everything ECW stood for, Cena must be held majorly responsible for bringing the promotion’s sense of danger and violence back to mainstream wrestling. Even if he did so by being absolutely despised.

10 WWE Stars Who Always Looked Way Better With Beards 1

1. Daniel Bryan

Think the current WWE World Heavyweight champion has an uphill climb to make based on his lack of size? Go back and take a look at him without his beard and try to convince a non-wrestling fan that the boyish competitor has a shot against any of his top competition. Simply put: beardless Bryan looks like a 12 year-old schoolboy. Nothing better showcases how important the beard is to the overall presentation of the leader of the Yes Movement than the video package, set to Imagine Dragons’ “Monster,” that aired prior to the Bryan-Triple H match at this past year’s WrestleMania.

A talented worker regardless, the beard gives Bryan a gimmick, something the company can market and the fans can rally around. Without it, he would still be the best wrestler in the world but he would be so as a member of WWE’s overcrowded midcard. While it may seem a ludicrous notion, the beard has enhanced Bryan in ways that a variety of suplexes, submissions and in-ring styles never could have.

It made him something more. It made him a symbol for the everyday man. The beard is to Bryan what the cowl and cape are to Batman, just significantly less cool and intimidating.

10 WWE Stars Who Always Looked Way Better With Beards 2

2. Bray Wyatt

Remember Husky Harris? Odds are, the man known today as Bray Wyatt hopes you do not. The cult-like leader with unmatched promo abilities made his television debut back in 2010 as Harris, a heavyweight with the speed and agility of a much smaller competitor. That was the extent of his character, though. After appearing on NXT Season 2, he became a member of the New Nexus. The ability he had between the ropes most certainly did not match his appearance. Rather than looking like a Mastadon in the vision of Vader, he looked more like the inspiration for legendary cartoon character Baby Huey.
When he returned to developmental and underwent a character change to the Bray Wyatt fans have become captivated by, he grew out both his beard and hair. It added to the appearance of the character significantly. Today, the beards of Wyatt and followers Luke Harper and Erick Rowan are synonymous with the Wyatt Family act. Who know how adversely affected the entire gimmick would be if the beards were to disappear.

10 WWE Stars Who Always Looked Way Better With Beards 3

3. CM Punk

Whether it was the long, bushy beard that he rocked during the Straight Edge Society faction or the most conventional beard he sported during his 434-day title reign, CM Punk is definitely a Superstar who always looked better with a beard than without. Without the beard, he looked like a 20-something Hot Topic worker. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it is not necessarily the best impression to make on a worldwide WWE audience.
With the beard, he looked the part of a champion. Somehow, despite the piercings and tattoos, the beard made him look legit and really sold him as a main event performer. Why that is is a mystery.
He experimented with several different beard styles throughout his WWE career but each time, he looked better with the facial hair than without.

10 WWE Stars Who Always Looked Way Better With Beards 4

4. Triple H

As Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Triple H was a clean-cut aristocrat from Greenwich. Even as his character morphed into the degenerate that led D-Generation X during the Attitude Era, setting the bar for controversial and crude humor, he largely maintained the same appearance. When he turned heel in 1999, however, he knew that he would have to completely alter the way he looked in order to succeed at the main event level. Gone were the long tights, the perfectly groomed head of hair and the clean-shaven appearance. In their place were more traditional trunks, a hairstyle wetter and stringier than before and, most importantly, a beard.

To be perceived as the ruthless, cold-hearted SOB that he was portrayed as on television, he had to look the part and it worked. Where as Triple H without the beard looked like the cocky and arrogant rich guy that everyone hates and wants to punch in the face, the bearded Game looked the part of a tough guy who could go toe-to-toe with anyone placed in front of him. It gave him an edge and helped with the overall evolution of the character.

When he shaved his trademark beard in 2002, fans were greeted by a Triple H that looked old. Really old. Ric Flair old. Actually, Flair looked like a college freshman compared to Triple H. It was ugly and, thankfully, The Game returned to the bearded look, but only after two whole years.

In 2005, he introduced “the Lemmy,” a take on the bearded stylings of Motorhead front man of Lemmy Kilmister. It was unconventional but it somehow worked. The fact that Triple H was a multiple-time WWE and World Heavyweight champion and essentially bullet proof helped.

10 WWE Stars Who Always Looked Way Better With Beards 5

5. Steve Austin

The WWE Network allows fans to go back and relive wrestling history and in doing so, fans have the opportunity to see what Steve Austin looked like prior to his “Stone Cold” days, With long flowing blonde hair and a cleanly shaven face, he closely resembled a California surfer than a roughneck Texan. When he adopted the goatee early in his WWE career and paired it with the walk, the talk and the attitude, it made for a tremendous presentation that fans gravitated to.
Had Austin remained a clean-cut heel, he may have made for a solid upper-midcard talent but he probably would not have achieved the industry-changing success that he did otherwise. With the goatee, his appearance matched his badass persona. Without it, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin would have been a utility player at best.
That is the power of appearance, as the next man on our list knows all too well.

10 WWE Stars Who Always Looked Way Better With Beards 6

6. Randy Orton

For a long time, The Viper was the fresh-faced young star that would lead World Wrestling Entertainment into the future. As the cocky, arrogant villain who achieved great things because of his natural ability and his ruthless aggression, the clean-cut look worked. When he made his babyface turn in 2010, however, he needed to fresh up his appearance and he did just that by letting his facial hair grow out.
It added age and a certain level of toughness to The Viper, who had won fans over with his ability to deliver the RKO from out of nowhere. Bearded Orton enjoyed the greatest run of quality matches in the third-generation star’s career while on the SmackDown roster. More importantly, he looked like an adult and not a frat boy from a local university.

10 WWE Stars Who Always Looked Way Better With Beards 7

7. The Big Show

There are many that believe Big Show’s displays of incessant blubbering from last fall were the lowest points of the giant’s Hall of Fame career. Others will point to his demotion to Ohio Valley Wrestling in 2000 following struggles with his weight. Some will even refer to his starring turn in the major motion picture Knucklehead, in which he plays the equivalent of a man child. While any of those are valid options, one must look not further than the rare occasions in which Big Show has appeared cleanly shaven to really represent his deepest, darkest moments.
Ok, so it is not that bad but it was still really ugly.
Big Show looked less like a dominant giant and more like a seven-foot-tall Beluga whale. He still did everything the same as he did in the past
but it was hard to get past his appearance. With a face resembling that of Ghostface from the Scream movie series, Big Show captured the WWE Championship in November of 1999 at the Survivor Series and would wear it into the new year, when he would thankfully grow the beard back and momentarily revert back to the dominant force of nature he was meant to be.He would reintroduced the shaved look in 2011 but it would, thankfully, be short lived.
                                                     

10 WWE Stars Who Always Looked Way Better With Beards 8

8. Wade Barrett

While most are used to the bearded, cackling Barrett that currently reigns as Intercontinental champion, there was a time when the Brit was a rookie with a booming voice, a background as a legitimately tough bare knuckle fighter and a clean shaven appearance that simply did not match the rest of the presentation. He looked like he should be wearing an overcoat and attending royal dinners rather than breaking people’s faces for a living.
After the coolness factor of the invading Nexus faction wore off, Barrett plummeted down the card and settled into mediocrity. While the beard did nothing to help elevate his star, it added grittiness and toughness to his appearance that was missing before. Now, he looked like a trouble-making baddie, backing up his villainous ways. When Daniel Bryan shaved his beard off in the summer of 2013, fans were forced to relive the horror of clean shaven Barrett.
No wonder he disappeared from television for months before returning with a penchant for delivering bad news.