Daniel Richerson vs WWE

It was a little after Kofi Kingston won the WWE Championship. It was a special time to be a westling fan. A black WWE Champion. A Champion kids from the hood could look at and say, "It can happen for me as well." Then Smackdown October 4, 2019, they booked Kofi to lose the Brock in 8 seconds. All the build up, All the pre Wrestlemania story how Kofi fought for 11 years to get to that spot, held the title for 6 months to lose in 8 seconds to a part timer. I want to say that was the last straw for me watching the WWE product. Around the same time frame, at a PPV Hell in A Cell, Seth Rollins and The Fiend (Bray Wyatt) had by far the worse Hell in A Cell matches of ALL Hell In A Cell matches. I had enough. The hashtag #CancelWWENetwork was trending as it would often for bad WWE shows, I finally took heed. The ONLY reason I was hesitant to do so was the NXT Takeover shows  that 9/10 never miss. 

Then I started thinking about the racism in WWE. Roddy Piper going black face against Bad News Brown. Triple H going over Booker T at Wrestlemania 19 which many agree that was the wrong decision. I'm a fan of the Kliq. The Kliq consisting of Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Shawn Michaels, Sean Waltman, and Triple H. I still hold up the "too sweet" gesture at random times because of the Kliq. A gesture that is similar to the gesture done by the Zeta Phi Beta Soroity. I consider myself a Kliq guy, but Triple H is full of crap when he says that storyline had nothing to do with race. Give me a break. I can recall when WWE had a group of black champions, and all the black champions put a group selfie online. Not to long after that, some of them ended up dropping the titles. Linda McMahon being in Trump's cabinet. That has nothing to do with the WWE product it just didn't sit well with me. In 2005, Vince McMahon was talking to John Cena talking about, "What's good in the hood?" If that wasn't cringe worthy itself, he ended up saying "Keep it up, my nigga." In. Front. Of. Booker. T. And. His. Wife. Sharmell! WWE's response to the backlash, "Mr. MacMahon is just a character just like on any TV show." For the record, Vince is the owner of the company. He over books just about everything that is said on his programming. So forgive me when I call bull---on that. 

I mentioned before I'm a Kliq guy but I got to call some of them out too. Sean Waltman and Triple H doing a sketch of the Nation of Domination. Sean Waltman black faced as Mark Henry. Triple H black faced as the Rock. All that plus the complete disappointment in the booking of shows, I just got sick of being disappointment. WWE making claim of how important the fans are to the product, which is true, but any fan with eyes, can tell WWE could give a crap about what the fans want to see 75% of the time. Especially Raw and Smackdown, the "Main" roster. Wasting talent like Samoa Joe, Mickie James, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, Eric Young, Zack Ryder, Moxley, among others. If you're going to hire workers based on buzz, at least book them right. 

The WWE and the 3rd Party situation...needless to say, I'm done with World Wrestling Entertainment for the foreseeable future. Now me not watching probably won't change anything about anything. WWE is still going on. I still keep up with sites like Cultaholic, and WhatCulture Wrestling, and WrestlingsNewsSource.

Kevin Nash once said, "I love it when  a mark says, 'That was the worst PPV I've ever seen, and I won't ever order one again until the next one.'" I didn't want to continue to be that guy. I still love wrestling. I just don't like WWE is treating it. I do keep up with All Elite Wrestling, and Impact Wrestling fka TNA both of whom are presenting a great product in my opinion. And with all of this that was said, all this was just my thoughts. May not be your thoughts, and that's ok. You're free to post on your own blog your thoughts. Like I'm free to post this. Like Jim Cornette is free to spill his verbal diarrhea. Like they say, Opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one. 

Daniel Richerson

THOUGHTS ON SOME CURRENT WRESTLING THINGS

According to the average wrestling fan through social media, WWE is going down the wrong direction, however, if you look at some of the in ring veterans through social media, WWE is heading in the right direction. It's the classic worker vs "smart mark" war that's been going on for decades. I'm not going to say who's right or wrong. Nor am I going to go after a hall of famer because i disagree with his or her opinion by calling them "part of the problem." 

I did not watch the latest Saudi Arabia show that WWE did because I didn't want to and because I don't necessarily agree with how Saudi Arabia handles business. I did however through social media see the results of the show, and like most I didn't understand the decision to have Bill Goldberg win a major championship over a current superstar. For one this is not 1998 anymore. Goldberg is not a spring chicken. Now the argument comes, neither is Jericho, but the difference is Chris Jericho is on TV every week. He's in our faces enough for us to buy the fact that he's still in the spot that he is in.

The Fiend was one of the more interesting characters that WWE has produced in a long while. It was different and it was working. The FireFly Funhouse was working. Only to lose in quick fashion to...Bill Goldberg.

Goldberg was one of my favorites to watch growing up until I noticed that he wasn't as good as they were trying to present him to be. I noticed this before I started reading the dirt sheets and watching shoot interviews.

All that aside, to play devil's advocate, Goldberg is getting his money. Who would turn down a spot where you don't have to work long matches and you're still considered to be a top guy? As I'm typing this it looks like it's Goldberg vs Roman for Wrestlemania. So we'll see how this goes.

Cedric Alexander and Ricochet ideally could help make the US Title mean something again. The US Title should be like what the IC title was back in the 80s and 90s which was a workhorse title. Add Cedric and Ricochet in the mix with Andrande and the matches I feel could steal any show it's put on.

Speaking of Ricochet, I don't think there's enough outrage toward the way his match with Brock Lesnar. Ricochet didn't get a chance to showcase his skills. He was nothing more than a dummy for Brock to F5 and pin. It reminded me of the way Kofi lost the WWE championship to Brock. It does nothing for Kofi or Ricochet to lose like that and let me say that I don't think it does anything for Brock either. We know that Brock is a legit bad---So him making quick work of two established athletes proves nothing. I'm trying to look past the fact that both Ricochet and Kofi are black, but how can I?

I have been keeping up with the AEW product. It's not a perfect product, but I can say that I feel it's a great product. One thing I will say and I know some agree with me is that the Women's division needs a bigger belt. That small belt in the hands of somebody the size of Nyla looks like a toy. The whole Cody Rhodes and MJF storyline is nothing short of tremendous. Jon Moxley being the one to take the belt off Chris Jericho I think it was a good choice. AEW should definitely stay on Wednesday nights. All this jabber about moving to Monday nights is ridiculous. Don't do it. Continue to build your audience. Continue to present the best product you can. Don't make the mistake TNA did and try to recreate the Monday night wars. Leave that stuff in the late 90s. It's 2020.

Follow me on Twitter: D_Rich864

Follow me on Instagram D_Rich864

Facebook.com/bigdusty

Contact Email: DanRich618@yahoo.com

 

Thanks for reading.

Daniel Richerson

AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT SEES THIS? and SURVIVOR SERIES PREDICTIONS

So this Sunday (11/20/2016) we got Survivor's Series, which was originally WWE's answer to WCW's Starrcade. That is if you watched the Starrcade DVD, never mind. The PPV that is the same age as I am, 29, has struck some controversy because it seems like story lines has been thrown out the window. It seems the Universe of smarks are up in arms because some of the rivalries have been put on pause due to the traditional survivor series tag matches.

I feel like I'm the only one that doesn't see this as a big deal. They're fighting for a greater cause of showing brand loyalty. They're putting differences aside to defend the brand. To me, it's kinda like the Olympics. Like look at the basketball team. You got players from rival teams that played together to play for their country. Remember the original dream team? Magic Johnson, Larry Byrd, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and them boys came together to win a gold medal. They put differences aside for the greater good of representing America. When Jordan was playing on the dream team, he wasn't representing the Chicago Bulls, He was representing America. Magic wasn't representing the Lakers, etc. So I see what's WWE's doing.

I don't mind that I saw Bayley coming to SmackDown to help being down a member of Smackdown's Women's team. For the greater good of her brand. She's representing her brand. Again I may be on my own on this, but I'm not mad at that. I also get the Stephanie McMahon playing the dictator role saying that if anyone messes up, they'll be punished. I get it. Now I get it that Stephanie has taken Big Show's gimmick and has turned heel and face like 20 times since the brand split started, but that's neither here nor there.

After Survivor's Series everything's going back to normal. But for this one cause, differences are put aside for the greater good of being on the best brand.

Now since I got more space, let me do some predictions, which I never do.

Brian Kendrick (raw) vs Kalisto (SDLive) for the Cruiserweight Championship - I see this being a new start for Kalisto and the Cruiserweight Championship. If Kalisto wins, the championship and the division gets moved to SD which makes since due to that new 205 show coming out. So I see Kalisto winning this.

Miz (Smackdown) vs Sami Zayn (Raw) for the IC Title - I think Zayn is winning. Even though this is the best work Miz has done. Even better than his work with John Morrison. But with Zayn winning that means Smackdown would need a new secondary title. So I don't know. Maybe for that reason Miz retains, but I'm still giving it to Zayn.

Team RAW vs Team SDLive, Tag Team elimination match - I give Team SD this win. I think Team SD has the stronger division, I know New Day is going for the record, and all that, but I think SDLive wins this one.

Team RAW vs Team SDLive Women's elimination SS match - I think Raw wins this hands down. They got 3 of the 4 horsewomen, and they got Nia Jax. I think SD will get some eliminations, and Natayla will get involved somehow, but RAW has this one in the bag.

Team RAW vs Team SDLive Men's elimination SS match - this one is a coin flip for me. I want to say SDLive wins just to pick a side, but I think RAW might win in order to create more storyline with the Undertaker on SDLive. But I'm going with SDLive for the upset win here. There I said it.

Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar - And now for the main event (uh) of the evening (uh)...see what I did there? Bill Goldberg returning for his "last match" against Lesnar. Since obviously the first match they had went so well at WrestleMania 20. Sarcasm there. I remember watching that match on PPV, both men got booed out of Madison Square Garden. It was brutal. I didn't like this idea when I first read the rumors because of how bad the match went at first. I see Brock winning. Not that Brock needs it, but I think Brock is going over. I don't see it being dominate but I see a hard hitting match with Brock winning.

So that's my thoughts, If you disagree, find me on Twitter @D_Rich864, or on Facebook.com/bigdusty. Or just comment down below how much of a mark I am and all that nonsense.

~Daniel Richerson

Raw Review (08/17/2015): UNDERTAKER GOT BOOED, AND I'M NOT THE BIT SURPRISED

Most of us wrestling fans won't admit this, but we are some fickle people. Fickle meaning changing frequently, especially as regards one's loyalties, interests, or affection. Some say, Undertaker is one of those characters that shouldn't be booed. I see the point but let's look at the facts. They booked Raw as Brock Lesnar's homecoming. So with that expectation, Brock was going to get a positive reaction from the crowd, and sure enough he did. Paul Heyman cut another classic epic promo, and Undertaker interrupted. He got booed. I will admit, when it first happened I was shocked then I thought about it, it's classic wrestling for that to happen.

Wrestling fans will turn on you in a twinkling of an eye if you will. Just ask John Cena. Cena was a major baby face. He was, as it is said, over with the crowd in a positive way. Then what happened? WWE went to a major wrestling city, and the smarks in the crowd booed him. So fans in other cities that wanted to be labeled cool as well, starting booing Cena as well. When the heels call us sheep, it's not far from the truth. We'll go with what ever the smarks are saying. What ever the dirt sheets are saying we take as bible, so when they don't like somebody, then obviously we aren't supposed to like that somebody.

Now you got the smarks, which I hear the Wrestlers "adore", then you got the fans who don't know what's going on. On Raw, Cena came out and the now normal chant for Cena started, "Let's go Cena! Cena sucks!" And usually it's the kids and women chanting, "Lets go Cena!" and it's the men and smarks chanting, "Cena Sucks!" But there was this poor guy in the crowd the camera caught and he was chanting both. He had no idea what was going on. I don't think many people caught it, but I just knew this guy was just a spectator. It was kinda comical, but at the same time, he just wanted to be part of the show. Which all sports fans in general want. You go to the major sports towns like Detroit, Brooklyn, Philly, Chicago, etc. and they do they're hardest to try and sometimes do take over the show.

Other aspects of the show was ok. 3 hours is just too long of a show if they aren't going to book it right. To what I see, people are loving the Diva Revloution, but are still hating the Bellas. Even though they have gotten better in the ring over the years. Speaking of the Divas, poor Eva Marie got tore to shreds because of bad advertising due to the Total Divas promo. No fault of her own, the promo of Total Divas said, "She was beloved by the audience, and now you're going to find out why the fans hate her." Most of us were trying to figure out when and how Eva was loved by the fans. Eva is perfecting her craft. For that she must be respected, but before getting with Brian Kendrick, she was just like any other diva with no skill just a nice body. She is a representation of everything wrong with women's wrestling in the WWE. These women getting called up to the big show before being ready and stinking up the joint. So Eva was never really loved or respected by the "WWE Universe."

So that promo came on, and the IWC including myself, just tore Eva to shreds. It was no fault of hers, bless her heart, but who ever produced that commercial should be looking for a job today for false advertisement. Now, though, we got Charlotte, Sasha, Becky who has took time to hone their skills before getting called up to the main roster, and are now pioneering the future of women wrestling for the WWE. Which is causing divas like the Bellas, and Alicia Fox and Naomi to step it up. I feel bad for Natayla and Cameron who haven't got ANY TV time since this Diva Revolution started. Poor Layla retired.

Last thing I will say concerning the Divas is sending Eva Marie back to "developmental" is a good idea. A lot of people were saying Layla should have done that just to get better. And hopefully in the near future, Bailey from NXT will get her chance to shine on Raw and Smackdown.

Hopefully after Summer Slam, Cesaro and Kevin Owens will be in better spots. This ROH guys are taking over the WWE and making the TV better. Cesaro and Owens has been knocking it out the park by the week. Owens should be the US champion right now in my opinion, and the rivalry between K.O. and Cesaro should have the US Title in the midst. I'm a big fan of the former ROH guys getting a spot on the main roster of Raw. Hopefully Samoa Joe is next up.  But when he get called up, the creative will have something for him.

~Daniel Richerson

SUMMERSLAM: SHUT THAT KID UP!!

Ladies and gentlemen...my name is Daniel Richerson, and Summerslam just went off the air. What a night it was. Starting off with the IC title match. Miz vs Ziggler. I honestly had to rewatch this match because during the match my cpu froze and I had to restart my cpu. Mr. Ziggles won.

So then you had Paige vs AJ Lee. These two wrestlers that happen to be in the divas division tore the house down. Paige definitely got some men's attention during this match. AJ put up a heck of a fight and had her submission move on and Paige countered it with a crazy version of a DDT and got the 3 count. New champion. Also Michelle Beadle was at ringside. If you know the story between AJ, CM Punk, and Michelle Beadle, then you know why I say that Beadle had a hand in AJ losing. WWE book it!

Now the flag match. This match was a match I feel that Swagger should win because of all the mess that's happening in this country, USA needed something to cheer about. First let's talk about the how it began. Russev waved his flag, and Swagger was waving his flag and Russev attacked Swagger which caused the flag to fall to the mat. JBL was pissed when that happened. JBL loves America. So in my mind I thought it would be a mistake if Russev won. Sure enough Russev won. I understand heat, but this may be a bit much. The match itself, it was solid, but nothing to brag about.

Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins was a match when I saw it on the card I thought it was going to be a show stealer, and for most of the match it was. It wSent in to the crowd. It was a great match back in forth. Then the waste of time Kane had to make an appearance. Kane ruined what was a classic match. Ambrose hit Rollins finisher and had the pin and Kane interfered and caused an fight among the lumberjacks the ring. And the finish was Rollins hitting Ambrose with the MITB briefcase. I hated it. Kane ruined the match. I hated that spot.

Bray Wyatt vs Jericho I thought on paper had a lot of potential. Turns out the match was boring. A few high spots here and there, but over all it was a bore. The only good thing that happened is Bray got the win.

Stephanie vs Brie was a fun watch. Stephanie ring attire was...sexy. I'll say it. Stephanie looked sexy. Brie looked anorexic. Brie looked hungry being in the ring with Stephanie.  Nikki turned on Brie and Stephanie got the W. I saw that coming. Jim Ross saw that coming too. It was a good match for what it was. Stephanie was actually getting more cheers than Brie until Triple H came out and Nikki made the turn.

Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton. During the pre show Ric Flair said Randy Orton was the best in the business today. I thought Flair was drunk. Orton showed out in this match. I still won't call him the best, but he's definitely in the top 5. Who do I say is the best? AJ Styles. Just my opinion. Anyway back to the match. The crowd went Cena on Reigns for some reason. They started to boo him. I actually like Roman. Yes, he has a lot of work to do, but he has the look. Roman won and he should've won. Like it or not, Roman is the next it guy.

And now...Brock Lesnar vs John Cena...total domination by Brock. John Cena went out like a jobber or "enhancement guy." I have to give my respect to John Cena. He's a top guy. He didn't have to go out like that, but Cena was like screw it, I'll take the loss. Brock Lesnar handed Cena 16 German suplexes. 16. My Goodness. Not to mention there was this little kid chanting, "Let's go Cena!" Everybody on Twitter wanted this kid to shut up. And thank God Brock made that happen. Also that poor mark of a sign guy. He tried to start one of those slow claps for Cena, and needless to say it didn't work. Justin Credible wasn't a fan of how Cena lost, but like I said, I like the way Cena lost. It was different, and Cena needed something different in his career. 15 time champ, he's had his time. He's a hall of famer, no doubt. Is Cena done? I don't think so. But with Nikki going heel, we just might see--just might see--Cena go heel? Just saying...

~Daniel Richerson

ARE POLITCS AND FOOTBALL TO BLAME FOR BAD RATINGS FOR WRESTLNG?

Cue Hero by Chad Kroeger feat Josey Scott. It’s been a while since I posted a blog on this blog spot and it’s because I can’t watch wrestling like I used to. With the job and other stuff I have to do, I don’t have the time. And the fact that I don’t have DVR. Either way, I do the best I can with YouTube and the dirt sheets, mainly NoDQ.com and WrestlingNewsSource.com. Either way, this came to me tonight while watching the CM Punk DVD produced by WWE, and may I say, it’s a great DVD. One of the best ones I’ve seen. I put it up there with The Rise and Fall of ECW and the Bret Hart DVD. On to what I really want to say…

I’m reading that the ratings this time of the year are supposed to be down for the WWE because of Monday Night Football and the Presidential Debates. To me that’s just an excuse to produce bad TV. If football and politics are the source to blame of the bad ratings then why even put a show on TV during this part of the year? Why even put money into all the lighting and booking? I mean according to the way things are, the ratings are going to be bad anyway, right? So if no one is going to watch, why waste the time putting the show on? Here’s my thing. Maybe it’s not the politics or football that’s the cause of the ratings. Ever think that show has not been made important enough? Maybe if you put the mindset in that you’re going to produce the best product to the audience that will make them want to come back and watch every week no matter what else is going on. Have the mindset in that you’re going to produce a product so riveting that people would rather DVR the debates and football to watch your product. People would rather watch your product as it’s happening, and then go on YouTube to catch up on football or presidential debates.

Never underestimate the power of the tongue which is now turned into the power of social media. In a sense, it’s the same thing. If you’re producing the best product you can on TV, no matter if it’s live or taped, people will talk about it. People will tweet about it, and eventually it will become what is now called “trending worldwide” or like what it was called back before social media “the talk of the town.” WWE is pushing social media hard. Having like a Twitter celeb tweet about it every week to make it more relevant. It’s an idea that could work better if the product was more relevant as a whole. Here’s the problem with wrestling in general. Not just WWE, but wrestling in general. For some reason or another, wrestling promoters decide to wait for one or two times a year to do something that everyone will talk about. Like when CM Punk cut that historic promo in Las Vegas, which by the way was the best promo in wrestling for a long time, the media went crazy. As Colt Cabana said, “The internet blew up.” It was going good after that for a while, and the night I think it all messed up was when Triple H was going to run the show with just him, Punk, Cena, and Sheamas. Then for some reason, Vince McMahon decided to go bring everyone back under Johnny Ace and have the show run like usual. To this day I don’t know what was the idea behind that. It was stupid. I still feel that they could’ve gone longer with that storyline. The wrestlers would be still working house shows and all that but the TV show, they would be striking. To me, that would have been money.

 Sometime later, Brock Lesnar returned later and all of the sudden the buzz is back. It was the night after Wrestlemania, and what I still feel was the best Raw produced. The crowd was a wrestling crowd. That crowd in Miami is the reason I love professional wrestling. The passion not only from the wrestlers in the ring but from the crowd. Daniel Bryan was made that night. And that lasted for a little bit. Now, from what I’m reading, it’s become stale again. Why not keep the momentum going? Why not say ok, let’s build on the momentum that we have and keep the fire burning? I never do understand in wrestling where a major story line dies, the whole product dies. It doesn’t make any logical sense to me what so ever. You have the people talking. You have the people tweeting, posting on Facebook, and making YouTube videos about your product. Instead of building, you’re giving people that YouTube video that’s went viral and then a few months later it’s back to square one. If you have solid foundation, the building will be solid. Maybe that’s the issue with TNA and WWE with the lack of ratings. They’re destroying the foundation.

I don’t know if this is going to change anything that I’m saying. I don’t know if anybody big in the business is going to read this, but I feel that if you have buzz, keep it going. If you see it dying, it’s because you stop building and became content.

Daniel Richerson
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram: @Big_Dusty
Facebook.com/bigdusty