Was thinking while watching them this last week that, as much as I enjoy them, the Vaudvillain gimmick is a small stage gimmick. It won’t work on the big stage. On the other hand, I could see Vince bring them in as a comedy act, jobbing to Los Matadores and the like. Not sure which fate is worse.
So this happened. Thoughts:
I guess Punk was full of shit about his medical concerns, meaning he’s basically just pissed at Triple H / Vince McMahon.
Not following UFC all the time, I can see Dana White doing this just for the one-off big money PPV. But is there someone signed to UFC that is so bad that a 36 year old with no professional MMA experience has a prayer of not being completely destroyed by? This isn’t like when Brock went to MMA, Brock was in the prime of his life and frankly a physical phenom in a way Punk isn’t.
This is real fighting, I’m surprised there’s not someone somewhere worried a guy who is longer in the tooth for a trained and experience fighter is going to step in the octagon with no fighting experience.
Los Matadores and Torito are around, sure, but I don’t think they’re what the E is looking for with Kallisto (or, previously, Rey Mysterio). They want a big name latino superstar to really be a brand ambassador to that community. Los Matadores, and I don’t dislike them, are a bland lower-midcard (if that) babyface tag team with a comedy mascot. And Torito is even less what they’re lookign for. None of this says they’re bad performers–all of them, especially Torito, are perfectly solid. Primo and Epico would probably be best served by getting a completely new gimmick (which would not be difficult, since we never see their faces), and Torito… well, sorry, Torito, you’re doing the WWE equivalent of dick and fart jokes unless something hits Vince on the head and he suddenly decides to hire some other minis for you to wrestle (or, I guess, he decides to let Torito have legitimate matches w/ normal-sized wrestlers ala LU).
Even Rey Rey, if he comes back, will not be around all that much, I expect, and not for all that long. Kallisto is clearly being groomed as his heir, and I expect he’ll be called up soon–he’s pretty much been “ready” since day one, IMO.
I think you may be underestimating the Full Sail crowd’s appetite for novelty acts. That said, I have a really hard time seeing Simon Gotch getting over on the main roster, but we’ll see. If they book him like a lower-midcard comedy jobber, he’ll be one; if they book him strong, we’ll see if he sinks or swims.
The reaction over in the Cageside Seats live thread was, essentially, “Corey who?”
Eh? I’m not quite sure how this invalidates Punk’s complaints about the way his injuries were dealt with in the WWE, or the grueling schedule he had to work, or the “full-blown staph infection”. (Aside: Has anyone ever had a partially-blown staph infection?) I don’t know much about UFC, but I am pretty sure they aren’t doing 300 shows a year. They may also have better medical staff.
Well this is certainly gonna determine whether or not he stays away from wwe probably.
If he fauls miserably he’ll be back, if he succeeds (doubtful) he’ll stay away
Well, Dana White says he’s being treated like any other starting UFC fighter, he’s going to have a first match against someone who is maybe 2-1, 1-1, 1-0, etc.
I just mean if his claims that he wouldn’t wrestle again because of all the concussions he’s had are legit he wouldn’t have gone into UFC. UFC is a high concussion sport in itself, in fact a lot of fights end specifically when you get a concussion since many knock outs in a fight are, in fact, concussions.
Heh, well, CM Punk prides himself on defying expectations, and his motivation for going through with this UFC thing is no doubt to piss off those who say he shouldn’t do it.
I haven’t been in any fights since junior high, so I don’t speak from any martial arts experience at all. BUT… CM did train for endurance, as well as how to roll with the punches: ie, doing things like cushioning falls, anticipating an oncoming attack and rolling with it to minimize damage, and so forth. One common technique I see used in UFC fights is one opponent will take advantage of the cage itself and use it as an anchor if he is on top. This forces the other guy to work harder to escape and tires him out. CM’s endurance training could be a key factor. Whether he can actually take the pain remains to be seen.
I’m not really a UFC watcher, but I’d probably drop $50 at least once to see him in the Octagon on PPV (and I think that’s what White is counting on).
Maybe now we can finally get that grudge match against the Green Ranger that we’ve all been dying to see. 
Hehe Frank’s got a “Jesus didn’t +ap” tattoo on his forearm. Knowing what an iconoclast Punk likes to be, this match could have some WWE-type accouterments if he decides to portray himself as a heel. He could wear a T-shirt that says “Jesus didn’t +ap, but he sure got ||ailed!”
Keep in mind that Punk is not going to go right into the octagon against contenders, the way Lesnar did. UFC commissioner Dana White says Punk’s first opponent will be “a guy who is 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 – something like that.”
Does CM Punk own the rights to that name, or will he have to go by his real name (Phil Brooks) in UFC?
“CM Punk” has been Phil Brooks’ ring name ever since he was a backyard wrestler in Chicago in the '90s. It originated with a tag team he was in called “the Chick Magnets”, consisting of CM Venom (who AFAIK is long since retired from wrestling) and CM Punk. Punk continued to use the name throughout his Ring of Honor run and held the ROH world title under that name for 55 days in 2005 before he came to WWE. He even convinced WWE to pay the royalties to Living Colour so that he could use “Cult of Personality” as his ring music as he had in the indies.
He absolutely holds the rights to that name, and AFAIK he’s the last wrestler to date to come to WWE who does own his name.
UFC will probably bill him as “Phil “CM Punk” Brooks”.
It’s his. Part of why we will never see anyone working in the WWE under their indie name ever again.
It seems sometimes wrestlers are allowed to take their gimmicks with them so I’m not sure how much WWE really cares. Bret Hart wrestled as “The Hitman” in WCW and that gimmick absolutely did not pre-date his WWF days. Steve Austin still uses Stone Cold for private endeavors.
Then some wrestlers like Mark Henry, Kurt Angle, and Brock Lesnar always wrestled under their own names. Which I think would make it difficult for WWE to really stop any uses of their likenesses outside of the WWE-sphere. I know Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) has said he was made to choose from a list of names and picked the one he felt was closest to his actual name, so WWE was definitely not cool with him wrestling under his actual name.
I know WWF threatened legal action over Scott Hall’s first few weeks in WCW because he was basically acting identically to Razor Ramon (toothpick and all.)
I think if they hired someone similar to a Kurt Angle (i.e. an athlete with his own renown and pedigree) they’d probably let them come in under their own name even to this day.
All of those examples predate Punk, though. That said, you’ve probably got the one situation in which the E would let someone keep their name.
I can never resist the other names Daniel Bryan mentioned as being on that list: Lloyd Boñer and Buddy Peacock. Just think–Lloyd Boñer could’ve defeated Triple H at WM30!
Here’s the Slammy Awards list.
My pick for Match of the Year isn’t listed. Tie between the Wyatts vs the Shield at Elimination Chamber, and Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins in the Lumberjack match at Summerslam.
I’ll go with Dean Ambrose for Superstar of the year.
Surprise Return of the Year: Ultimate Warrior
Insult of the Year: Paul Heyman telling John Cena he’s the son he always wished he had… if his son had testicles.
NXT Superstar of the Year: Sami Zayn
But what if I name him “Krispen Wah”?
Considering promotions have frequently transferred stage names they create to the wrestlers (Hulk Hogan, Bret The Hitman Hart, Nature Boy Ric Flair, Macho Man Randy Savage, Lex Luger) to allow them to use them elsewhere, I don’t actually see why if the WWE wanted an Indie wrestler’s stage name they couldn’t just make it part of their contract. Namely, “you sign here, we get ownership of that name you create.” It’s their IP, and you can sell your IP.
I think the reason we probably won’t see indie names coming in is most of them are generic and have no mainstream value, so why even bother. Actually I’m not sure why WWE allowed someone to wrestler under the name CM Punk, it’s one of the dumber stage names (maybe only second to The Miz–and actually that was Mizanin’s name in the indies as well) that has hit Main Event status in the last decade or so, it sounds like an Indie Name, and in a bad way. That being said, I think the fact that Phil Brooks is such a good performer both in and out of the ring transcends kind of a goofy stage name, but if I’m Vince I dunno why you wouldn’t want to clean that name up some…that’s literally a name I’d expect a High School kid to use. It’s akin to Dude Love, which Mick Foley did use in High School and which had no place in actual wrestling until Mick himself was over so much they could just use it as kind of a running gag.
Now wrestlers who wrestler under their actual names present a different issue, because that isn’t IP they can just sign over, which is why I bet you won’t see that again unless it’s a Kurt Angle type.
It has come to my attention that Alberto Del Rio won the AAA world championship on a PPV they held last night.
I don’t know if they’ll make mention of that fact when he shows up in Lucha Underground, but it definitely puts him in a good position to make a big impact.
I’m sure Stryker will say something about it, and Vampiro will add “He’s criollo, brother. He already thinks he owns the place.”
RAW was weird last night. This is my first REAL Slammys show (last year I wasn’t aware of the product enough to know what was going on) is it always disjointed like that? or is it because it’s a go-home show for TLC?
No storylines were advanced in any meaningful way, there was the match between Charlotte (who lost for whatever reason) and Nattie so they could advertise Takeover 3: Take Two: The Third, and other than that it was kinda…nothin.
Anyone see the main event? I was knee deep in the Packers at this point and missed it
#pushkofi!