Celebs in the Ring

Big Show vs. Floyd "Money" Mayweather

As a general rule I do not like it when celebrities get into a wrestling ring and wrestle.  Or at least try to.  The one exception I can think of is Floyd "Money" Mayweather.  He and the Big Show had a match at Wrestlemania 24.  I witnessed it first hand and I must say it exceeded my expectations.

I wasn't looking forward to it at first, but looking back I left like they had a nice lead up to the event and I loved the way they ended it.  I thought for sure Show would squash Money like a bug, but instead, Mayweather came out on top.  Of course a pair of brass knucks don't hurt.

I bring this topic up because apparently TNA has offered Chad Ochocinco to settle his differences with his coach Marvin Lewis inside a steel cage at their Lockdown pay per view in the spring. That nugget of info comes from 411 Wrestling.  The report goes on to say the company will train each man for the match.

 I groan at the thought of this for several reasons.  The first being as a I mentioned, I don't like celebrities in the ring.  Now if Ochocinco was wrestling a wrestler, I might be more accepting of this.  It seems athletes tend to do better in this environment, (Mayweather and even Lawrence Taylor back at Wrestlemania 11)

Throwing the coach in there too just seems stupid to me.  It's a legitimate grudge between these two and you're going to exploit that with a match in a cage.  Maybe Marvin Lewis a BA too, I don't know as I don't follow football.  Although the Wrestlemania of football is coming up next week, but I digress.

There have been plenty of failed celebrity wrestling matches in the past.  Drew Carey in the Royal Rumble.  Jay Leno and DDP against Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff.  Dennis Rodman & Hogan vs. DDP & Karl Malone.  Jenna Morasca (from Survivor) vs. Sharmell.  WCW World champion David Arquette.  I could go on here, but I think you all get the point.

Sure, if you want some main stream attention, get a celeb involved in your event, but it doesn't have to be in a match.  Look at the press the WWE got when Mike Tyson just refereed the match between Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin.  Donald Trump merely served as a ringside assistant to Bobby Lashley in his battle with Umaga.  Those are acceptable ways to be involved.

Bottom line, the celeb must be an athlete in his or her prime to compete against another wrestler.  Your thoughts?


So TNA is clearly grasping at straws

Something Old, Something New

Courtesy: WWE.com

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't watched SmackDown! yet and don't want to know what happened yet, read a previous post.  Maybe my thoughts about the Miz or my quest for a Wrestlemania costume idea.

Otherwise, let's go on...

It appears that Wade Barrett is picking up on SmackDown! where he left off on Raw.  Laying waste into the faces of the WWE.  And now he's got some help.  Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel, who chose not to beat each other with kendo sticks on Raw, have moved to Friday nights now to help Barrett in his fight.  And the trio has a new ally.  Ezekiel Jackson has apparently joined the "new" SmackDown! version of the Nexus.

I like this idea for a couple of reasons.  One, I'm glad they didn't go with the Wade Barrett face turn on Raw.  I think it's too premature for that.  Barrett works well as a heel and has a lot of potential.  SmackDown! is in need of a shakeup.  Raw had gotten all the overflow of the NXT guys from all the members of Nexus and Alex Riley.  All SD got was Kaval, and we see what happened to him.

Also, I always thought Zeke worked better as a heel.  I liked him a lot when he was under the tutelage of "King" William Regal.  Hopefully this new group will stick together and the four of them can grow and develop together.  I think it might be a good idea to give them a manager too.  If the rumors of Regal's retirement from the ring are true, I think he'd be a natural fit for this situation.

I liked they way the group (I'm not sure if they're still considered Nexus or not) manhandled the Big Show.  Zeke definitely provides some muscle the Raw version didn't really have.  I had heard that Wade, Justin, and Heath were being joined by someone else tonight, and my fear was Skip Sheffield was coming back.  I'm glad that wasn't the case, but I know it's only a matter of time before the Stone Cold wanna be is back in the ring and on my TV.

Besides the formation of this new faction, SmackDown! didn't really stand out to me.  Not sure why R-Truth (from Raw) is feuding with Alberto Del Rio (from SmackDown!)  I was kinda surprised to see Del Rio and Cody Rhodes lose to Rey Mysterio and R-Truth.  Seems like the guy you're grooming to be the next "Mr. Wrestlemania" would have had a better showing.  At least he wasn't the one who got pinned.

The Cutting Edge segment at the end was predictable and lame.  I get tired of these love triangles in wrestling.  I guess it truly adds to the "male soap opera" element of sports entertainment.

How soon before Beth Phoenix turns heel again and goes after Natalya?

I'm glad to see Kofi Kingston successfully defend the Intercontinental title.  I really like Kofi's potential and feel like he's got something to contribute.  Jack Swagger is no slouch either. I just think he got pushed too soon last year and wasn't ready to win Money in the Bank, let alone the World Heavyweight championship.

Final thoughts on SmackDown!, I dislike it when any show opens with talking heads and ends with talking heads.  That's what we got tonight.  Remember a couple of weeks ago when Raw started off with John Morrison vs. the Miz?  That's the way a wrestling show should be.  You don't have to have a high paced, action packed match like that open every show, but every once in a while it would be nice.  We know that Kofi and Swagger have a history, why not just start the show with them?  They could have set the pace for the night.

It's just my 1-2-3 Cents, and you're reading this, so you wanted to know, right?  Thanks for reading, and I invite you to check out My 1-2-3 Cents on YouTube too.

Five Brass Rings

courtesy: WWE

It's the fifth day of Christmas and instead of gold rings, we're getting brass ones.  As in brass knuckles.

I understand that there are technically four rings for the fingers, and the fifth isn't really ring shaped, but I'm trying to go with a theme here, so bare with me.

Brass knuckles are an interesting weapon of choice in wrestling. So interesting in fact, some regions actually had Brass Knuckles Champions.  Guys like Blackjack Mulligan, Rocky Johnson, and Black Bart all held the NWA Florida version.

I never saw any of these matches, as the title was retired in 1984, which was about the time I started watching wrestling.  But I've seen plenty of villains use the knucks to their advantage.

Floyd "Money" Mayweather used them to knock out the Big Show at Wrestlemania 24.  I was there for that, and thought the booking of the match and it's ending were actually pretty creative.  I was skeptical of the match when it was first announced.  I had imagined another catastrophe like the Big Show-Akebono Sumo match at Wrestlemania 21.  At least at this one, Show was fully clothed.

My memories of the knuckles include Randy Savage using them to win the Intercontinental title from Tito Santana.  But I'm pretty sure they were wrapped in something and not the exposed knucks we see today.  Also, back in the World Class days, Gino Hernandez used them to beat faces like Kerry Von Erich among others.  In fact, Gino was the Texas territory brass knuckles champion.   Other legends like Fritz Von Erich, Abdullah the Butcher, and Bruiser Brody also wore that title.  It was an active belt off and on since 1953, before the NWA changed it to the Texas hardcore title in 1999.  That version only lasted a couple of years.

While there are no longer any brass knuckles champions, or at least none that I'm aware of, the weapon is still used today.  We don't seem them a whole lot, but William Regal is probably the wrestler most synonymous with using the foreign object.  Edge used them to beat John Cena at SummerSlam a few years back as well.

Running down our 12 Days of Christmas list (the whole point of this post)
A Red Rooster in a Wrestling Ring
2 Turtle Jobbers
3 French Canadians
4 Wooing Horsemen
5 Brass Rings