This Week in ‘E – The Final Countdown

Columns, Features

SummerSlam produced quality matches but fairly predictable results, but things still point to some good stuff happening in WWE from this point on. I can hear “The Final Countdown” playing somewhere…

Opening Witty Banter
Hello out there in Internet land. I am exhausted from a full weekend of work, but I am optimistic about the week ahead. SummerSlam is in the books and CM Punk once again stands tall. Did anyone really expect Punk to be a three time World Heavyweight Champion and now be on a collision course with the Undertaker of all people? Yeah me neither.

Let’s take some ‘E…

The News of the Week
“The Best in the World” is finally coming to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Ring of Honor sent out the following announcement that WWE has agreed to sign “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson to a contract.

Here is the announcement straight from ROH:

Bryan Danielson has agreed in principle to a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.

Bryan has been an exemplary talent and a wonderful member of the Ring of Honor locker room and family since the inception of the company. We couldn’t be happier for Bryan and all of his successes, many of which Ring of Honor has been proud to witness first hand.

We congratulate Bryan on the beginning of this next journey in his brilliant career, and wish him all the best as he progresses. Many Ring of Honor fans refer to Bryan as the “best in the world” and we look forward to looking on in earnest as he shows everyone watching the wrestling world’s biggest stage just why that is.

Bryan will appear as scheduled at all of the September Ring of Honor events. Please join us in Philadelphia, Dayton, Chicago, Boston, and New York as we say thank you and farewell to a truly one-of-a-kind talent.

Danielson is a product of the Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy where he worked with fellow now famous students such as Paul London, Lance Cade and Brian Kendrick. WWE signed Danielson and five other Academy graduates to developmental deals in 2000, but they were released in 2001 when Memphis Championship Wrestling, the developmental territory they worked in, was closed.

Apparently Ring of Honor’s decision to move their ROH on HDNet television show to Monday nights, got WWE to notice the company more seriously. Rumors are swirling that more signings from ROH are expected in the very near future.

This is absolutely fantastic news, and thanks to the recent push of a guy like CM Punk I am excited for what WWE potentially has in store for Danielson. The question is what will he compete as? Bryan Danielson is his real name, but that didn’t stop them from giving Monty Brown and Chris Harris new monikers. “American Dragon” is a pretty bad- ass nickname and I would personally love to see him compete as that. But I am getting ahead of myself in many ways here. I am just thrilled with the news. It does kind of make you wonder if Shawn Michaels has a clause in his contract that states at least one of his Academy kids has to be under WWE contract at all times. With Kendrick recently released the door opened for Danielson.

A lot of SummerSlam backstage gossip and news came out as the pay per view happened:
– Luke Perry was backstage at SummerSlam and was shown in the crowd during the PPV.
– Jeff Hardy’s old associates Lita and Shannon Moore were also backstage, as was Rob Van Dam.
– The TNA street team handed out free Sting masks outside the Staples Center. This was in an effort to raise awareness for October’s Bound For Glory pay per view, which will be in Irvine, CA. The hope was that fans would also wear them in the building while on camera.
– In the SummerSlam dark match, Beth Phoenix won a 15 Diva tri-brnded Battle Royal. This match will be included on the SummerSlam DVD as an extra.

– WWE had two matches at Saturday’s Fan Axxess. They included Primo Colon defeating Chavo Guerrero, and Hurricane Helms beating Paul Burchill. After Hurricane’s match, he celebrated with Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore and told Howard Finkel that getting to celebrate with his two best friends makes his comeback worth it.

Speaking of Jeff Hardy, the rumors are still swirling that he is essentially done with WWE. He is expected to work the RAW taping on Monday and the SmackDown taping on Tuesday, but then will be done for the foreseeable future.

If Hardy really is done for a while then there will be a big whole in the SmackDown main event scene, but his older brother and John Morrison should be able to fill his spot. And with Undertaker back in the fold as the top guy Hardy’s presence at the top card won’t be as sorely missed.

The Baltimore Sun has a recent interview up with Chris Jericho where he talks about his teaming with Edge, his feud with Rey Mysterio, on WWE’s need to create new stars, and more. He also claimed that WWE is currently in a “crisis period.”

“We’re in a crisis period in WWE and we need to build new guys. When Shawn Michaels came back to Raw, he said, “Whose been built since I left?” On Smackdown we’ve built [John] Morrison and [Dolph] Ziggler and Cryme Tyme. The Intercontinental title has been rebuilt now with Rey Mysterio. But I can’t tell you on Raw who has been built over the last six months. They better do it soon, because when this generation of performers is gone, who will replace them?”

Amen. Chris Jericho. Amen.

According to a recent article by The New York Post, WWE has begun to attract an increasingly female audience. The article states that college-aged female viewers were up 34%, 25-34 year old viewers were up 13.7% and they are up 23% with women over 50 years old. The article also says that “lust” is a determining factor, because “These guys all look like body-builders instead of just big guys.” WWE is also apparently planning an apparel line, new toys and other branded products targeted at females. The article also mentions that the new “softer WWE PG rating” has helped attract new sponsors like 7-Eleven and Pepsi Max to the company.

WWE COO Donna Goldsmith had the following comments in regards to the news.

“When we were a little more edgy, we lost a lot of women,” said Goldsmith. “They weren’t as comfortable watching with their kids. But now that we are more family-friendly, it’s a perfect reason for them to come back.”

Yeah between this and Linda McMahon possibly running for Connecticut Senate, don’t expect WWE change back from TV-PG any time soon.

The WWE Breaking Point PPV will feature submission only matches for the main event matches only, not the entire card.

Actually that doesn’t sound like it is too bad of a concept then. I remember LockDown was going to feature the top two matches inside a cage before they decided to make it an all-cage show, and everyone crapped on it. The only thing is that many WWE guys don’t have established submissions holds already. So expect Cena and his STF in one main match and Undertaker and his Hell’s Gate in the other.

On this week’s ECW, a new female backstage interviewer named “Courtney Taylor” debuted. Taylor is WWE developmental talent Beverly Mullins, who has been working under the name Wesley Holliday. Not surprisingly Mullins has also done modeling for Playboy and Hooters.

I love blondes with big racks more than the next guys, but how much did her and Tiffany look alike during their Oscar-worthy interaction on the show? A little variety isn’t a bad thing.

Wrestler of the Week
Week of August 17 – 23: CM Punk
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, for the third week in a row I have to give Wrestler of the Week honors to the new World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk. Punk has been absolutely on fire this summer and this week was no different. He got more promo time on SmackDown to build up his rivalry with Jeff Hardy and then teamed The Hart Dynasty in the show’s main event to do battle with John Morrison and Jeff & Matt Hardy. The match ended up being another of the many free TV match of the year contenders that SmackDown has produced this year. Then last night at SummerSlam Punk and Hardy went all out in their TLC match that saw Punk walk away as World Heavyweight Champion for a third time, and then walked right into his highest profile feud ever against the legendary Undertaker. Life was good to Punk this week.

RAW’s On Tonight!
RAW is coming live from Las Vegas tonight with Floyd “Money” Mayweather acting as guest host. Expect some epic confrontations with Mayweather and The Big Show and Chris Jericho. Plus being in Vegas I am just begging for a Godfather cameo as well. Also Randy Orton retained the WWE Championship over John Cena thanks to plenty of shenanigans so expect their main event rivalry. And unsurprisingly DX took care of Legacy and now all eyes point to a mega-tag feud with Jericho and Show. MVP also got a win at SummerSlam over his mid-card contemporary Jack Swagger. Will this be the start of Porter’s rise to the top.

On Last Week’s Episode…
Eison and Clark cover a six man tag heavy SmackDown. You’d think the head writer was in the most famous trio tag team in U.S. wrestling history or something.

Eison and Raffi cover a pretty mediocre Superstars that strayed away from their usually awesome three match format.

Eison keeps it Extreme.

Marshall knows what you did last RAW…See what I did there?

How They Rated
Superstars (8.13.09) – .8

SmackDown! (8.14.09) – 1.7

A.M. RAW (8.16.09) – .7

RAW (8.17.09) – 3.8

ECW (8.18.09) – 1.2

This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
Perillo breaks down last weekend’s CHIKARA Young Lion’s Cup.

Johnson looks at some of the indy wrestling you’ve never heard of.

Marshall asks WWKD?

In Case You Didn’t Spend the $40
PK had love SummerSlam coverage for the Pulse.

Here is the quick ‘n’ dirty:
In the opening match Rey Mysterio retained his Intercontinental Title over Dolph Ziggler.

Montel Vontavious Porter pinned “All-American American” Jack Swagger after a Playmaker.

WWE Unified Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho & The Big Show retained their titles over Cryme Tyme (JTG & Shad Gaspard). Big Show knocked out JTG with a right hand and Jericho covered him for the pinfall.

Kane pinned The Great Khali after a DDT.

DeGeneration X (Shawn Michaels & Triple H) beat Legacy (Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes) when Michaels pinned Rhodes after hitting him with Sweet Chin Music.

Christian retained the ECW Championship over William Regal in mere seconds. Christian caught Regal with the Killswitch as Regal was taking off his ring robe. After the match Ezekiel Jackson and Vladimir Kozlov, who were with Regal, attack Christian.

In the WWE Championship match Randy Orton retained his championship by pinning John Cena. The match was restarted twice. First Orton was disqualified for pushing the official but WWE Chairman ordered the match to be restarted. Then Orton got the pin on Cena with a schoolboy roll up while Orton’s feet were illegally on the ropes. Another official came to the ring to alert the first ref what had happened and the match was restarted once again. Then a guy rushed the ring and attacked the official before security dragged him away. This alteration caused much confusion, which allowed Orton to hit Cena with the RKO to finally win the match and keep his title.

In the main event, CM Punk beat Jeff Hardy in a TLC Match to win the World Heavyweight Championship. After the match, Punk stood over a fallen Hardy gloating, only for the lights to go out and a familiar “gong” sound fill the air. When the lights turned back on Punk was standing over the Undertaker, who hasn’t been seen since April. Punk, of course surprised, gets caught in a chokeslam from Undertaker, and the pay per view fades with the Dead Man standing tall on the entrance ramp.

IP Staff Roundtable Results for WWE SummerSlam
One of the largest group of Pulse writers in a long got together to discuss SummerSlam, including many first-timers and newbies. Here is what our minds thought would happen at last night’s “Biggest Party of the Summer.”

Roundtable Champion: Matthew Michaels: 7-1* (167-141)
*This is frankly the best I’ve seen MM do since I took over doing roundtables, but the asterisk is included because he didn’t actually include his results in time to make the roundtable. Instead he submitted his picks via the comments section. This victory will forever be tainted…haha…

“Official” co-Champions: Mark Allen: 6-2 (163-83), Michael O’Mahony: 6-2 (10-6) and Will Pruett: 6-2 (6-2)

The rest:
Brian Eison: 5-3 (6-2)
Charlie Reneke: 5-3 (5-3)
Steven Gepp: 4-4 (14-23)
Tess Nolde: 4-4 (8-8)
Raffi Shamir: 4-4 (103-83)
Andrew Wheeler: 4-4 (152-89)
Anthony Perillp: 3-5 (15-9)
Widro: 3-5 (56-39)

For more relevant, interesting and exciting wrestling information from your truly, check out my gig as the Pro Wrestling Examiner over at Examiner.com.

Mark was a columnist for Pulse Wrestling for over four years, evolving from his original “Historically Speaking” commentary-style column into the Monday morning powerhouse known as “This Week in ‘E.” He also contributes to other ventures, outside of IP, most notably as the National Pro Wrestling Examiner for Examiner.com and a contributor for The Wrestling Press. Follow me on Twitter here.