Author Archive
WWE: Ryback and the Jobber Renaissance Open the Door for a New Star and Gimmick
On August - 25 - 2012
This year has been the year of the steamrolling new Superstars. It began with Brodus Clay, who debuted his new Funkasaurus gimmick to usher in the new year.He steamrolled through the under- and midcards without a hitch, then ground up against the Big Show, but didn't lose any actual matches.Then came Damien Sandow, destroying the undercard with signature aplomb, even to the point of beating on Clay, though not actually winning clean matches over him.Ryback appeared, and with the lower two thirds of the WWE roster already well destroyed, was fed local enhancement talent, something we hadn't seen in a ...
Zack Ryder: 9 Things He Could Do as GM of ZackDown
On July - 10 - 2012
So, in a moderately shocking turn of events, Zack Ryder will be acting General Manager of SmackDown—er, I mean ZackDown—this Tuesday—er, I mean Friday.The question is, will Zack do anything noteworthy as GM, or will he simply be allowed his two minutes of camera time in front of the crowd?Will he abuse his power to help himself or his friends? Will he use it to get revenge on those who have wronged him? Or will he simply fist pump the night away?Ostensibly, the guy has a lot of power, and a short period of time to wield it.But what can ...
Kharma, Layla, and Revitalizing the Women’s Division: WWE Overhaul Part 8
On May - 11 - 2012
Author's note: My first article on b/r was about how the tag team situation was worse than it needed to be. I wrote it way back in January, and this article would have been the logical follow-up. When I began my WWE: Overhaul series, this was one of the first, most obvious entries to write for it. A combination of logical flow and building on earlier entries pushed it to the end. Then I jumped on WrestleMania, and after that I didn't write anything else. I've tried multiple times to start this article without much success. I didn't know how ...
WrestleMania 28: Who Owes Their WrestleMania Moment to Wade Barrett’s Injury?
On March - 31 - 2012
In late February, Big Show threw Dolph Ziggler onto Wade Barrett and R-Truth outside the ring near the announce table.Barrett was injured, dislocating his left elbow.Because of that, WWE changed its mind about returning the Money in the Bank match to WrestleMania.A couple weeks later, they had cemented the idea of a 12-man tag match to unify the GM positions of RAW and SmackDown.While this was a bad trade for fans and Barrett, it means four more guys (five if you count Barrett's replacement) get a shot at WrestleMania glory.So who's in now that wouldn't have been otherwise?We can't know, ...