With December almost over that means @RantsWrestle is back with another round up of all things wrestling including news on sting debut with the wwe and his potential wrestlemania match with triple h, CM Punks podcast with good buddy and former ROH second city saint tag team partner colt cabana and signing with UFC. Vince McMahon on the stone cold steve austin podcast, wwe tlc-s results and the rise and fall of Dolph Ziggler in a few short weeks. More NXT notes as well as a quick review of this months NXT network special, Kevin Owens and more Sami Zayn praise. We also look ahead to new Japan's joint ppv show with Jeff Jarrett's group GFW wrestling kingdom 9. The fall out from ROH Final Battle 2014 and a look ahead for 2015 in ROH. We also look at Dixie carter seriously considering bringing back vince Russo, lucha underground news, a review of chikara tomorrow never dies ippv and my top ten predictions for 2015
WWE
Well I suppose I should start with CM punk considering he generated lots of press for his appearance on colt cabanas podcast the art of wrestling. In part one of the interview punk spoke openly about his departure from wwe (being fired on your wedding day was a little vindictive on wwe part), the medical teams lack of knowledge over concussions and staph infections and claimed ryback was to stiff in the ring and was using steroids. Punk pulled no punches in the interview regrading his final year and half in the wwe. Punk even out right buried head of talent relations triple h and claimed hunter had buried him in 2011 when punk was still pipping hot from his Pipebomb and going rogue with the wwe title storyline in the summer of 2011. Punk also touched on how his love for the business was all but dead thanks to his time at Titan. Punk the following week in part two of the interview punk answered some fans letters and emails regrading part one of the interview but only touched on how some troll fans had been trolling him and only real fans would understand why he quit. That weekend punk shocked (well not everyone) most insiders when he appeared on UFC and announced he had inked a deal with the fight organisation and would now beiving into training to become a full time mixed martial artist. Punk now is done with wrestling according to his media interviews but somewhere down the road I wouldn't rule out a move back into wrestling. Because realistically punk did point out the amount of concussions he had suffered while in his final year with wwe (if you were keeping count during the AOW podcast he had reportable suffered over 13 concussions) and was banged up from years of being on the road. So for a man to complain of all this damage his body has taken and is now taking a career in MMA which is ten times more gruelling on the body than wwe but the limited road schedule most have been appalling to him. Now question is can CM punk after all damage his body has taken honestly hang or even realistically fight for the UFC. His training camp should answer those questions and his first (if it ever happens) fight of course. Personally I hope punk makes a success of his new career but the more you think about it the more it is highly unlikely he will achieve any success in the world of fighting. Sting finally made his long awaited debut for the wwe and return to pro wrestling at wwe survivor series ppv. It was quiet a sight for a longterm fan like myself I thought I would never see this happen but now has. On the show he walked out and cost the authority there match against team Cena by allowing Dolph Ziggler the chance to pin Seth Rollins after putting Dolph on top of him. Also on the show sting came face to face with hunter had a stare down and sting ended up giving hunter a scorpion death drop to hopefully set up a match between the two for wretlemania 31 next year. The angle was historic (because sting was finally in wwe) but a little confusing we still don't know what stings motivation was in costing the authority the match but only time will tell on this one and should play out as wwe kick it into high gear for the wrestlemania season. Vince McMahon stepped out of his comfort zone and appeared on the stone cold steve austin podcast in a televised addition of the podcast which aired on the wwe network following another ordinary raw in Tulsa Oklahoma. Stone cold was as stiff as ever with vince asking vince questions about TNA, wwe stop/start booking, wwe creative team, the handeling of Jim ross, cm punk AOW comments and macho man randy savage hall of fame induction among other things. Early on vince looked a little uncomfortable with Austin's questions but eventually loosened up and by the top of the hour was telling his team and austin let's go another 15 (personally by this point there wasn't a lot else the two had to talk about). The punk situation was brushed down the carpet by vince with the chairman giving a very cooperate answer for that question. Stone cold also mentioned the jr situation to which vince response was to blame good ole jr for the panel he hosted during the summer slam 2013 ppv (where flair hijacked it in his usual manner), again it felt like vince was dodging the question and he quickly moved on to another question not really wanting to talk at lenght about jr mistreatment by vince. The only excuse the chairman seemed to have was that jr wanted to move away from wwe home base in cunnicati back to his home in Oklahoma. Cesero and the rest of the millennials (as vince called them) must have been gutted to hear vince McMahon essentially bury them for his creative teams misfortunes. Overall vince stuck up for his creative team and placed the blame for talents stop/start pushes on them which was very quzzling indeed. Also vince was asked by austin about macho man randy savage and posed the question longtime fans like myself have been asking for years and that was would macho man randy savage ever get that long due hall of fame induction to which vince said yes, it might not happen next year but by 2016 surely vince has to induct the macho man into his much panned hall of fame. Dolph Ziggler seems to be getting another wwe push after he recently stole show at the survivor series ppv. Ziggler has suffered like so many others in this company over the years from a stop/start push but now it looks like wwe have finally decided to go all out and push Ziggler. However that was how it seemed in the fall out from survivor series as by December he was back to losing meaningless matches on raw and was scheduled to face Luke Harper at the wwe TLC&Stairs ppv in a rematch for the IC title, so that so called push seems to have come to an end already. NXT continues to be the only reason to have a wwe network subscription these days and there was proof of that with NXT R:Evolution which delivered and made wrestling fans everywhere rave about hunters side project. The main event saw Sami Zayn defeat longterm rival Adrain Neville to finally win the big one and NXT title, the main event blew away anything wwe has promoted this year. Kevin (Steen) Owens made his long awaited debut by beating CJ Parker in what was essentially a squash match and then later that night turned on longtime rival/best friend Sami Zayn to set up a main event programme with him going forward. ROH fans everywhere have been rejoicing at the fact the two will now be feuding on wwe tv (well NXT) and so am I in fact. Also on the NXT network special Finn Balor and Hideo Itami beat The Ascension Konnor and Victor in a good outing and Finn nearly stole the show with his enterance. Charlotte pinned Sasha Banks to retain the NXT women's title in another fine outing. Agains sasha impressed me here with another fine heel performance and I'm hoping that in 2015 she can finally win the title she deserves after a stand out year in NXT. The lucha Dragons Kalisto&Sin Cara rolled over the Vaudevillians Aiden English&Simon Gotch in a average match to retain the NXT tag team titles and Baron Corbin defeated Tye Dillenger in a nothing match afterward Corbain had a stare down with rival Bull Dempsey. The brain geniuses at wwe decided to rename wwe tlc ppv to TLC&Stairs as they would be promoting a stairs match between Erik Rowen and The Big Show. Finally here are the quick results from the wwe TLC&Stairs ppv which aired on the wwe network on December 14th. Dolph Ziggler beat Luke Harper in a ladder match to win the wwe intercontinental title in a good match but both men took some unessecary bumps and ladder hits in my opinion. The Uso Jimmy&Jey won by DQ over wwe tag team champions The Miz&Miz-Dow in a worthless match. Big Show rolled over Erik Rowen (so much for big reds push) in a lousy stairs match which went 10 minutes to long with bout only going 12 minutes. John Cena toppled Seth Rollins rather predictably in a tables match which seemed to go on forever. Nikki Bella bested AJ Lee in a rather dull match to retain the wwe divas title. In another stinker Ryback defeated Kane in a chairs match, by this point the crowd was dead and finally Bray Wyatt beat a Dean Ambrose in a tables ladders and chairs match which had a dreadful finish.
TNA
A rather quiet month for TNA as they gear up for there January 7th 2015 relaunch after signing a television deal with destination America. Rumours are running throughout the industry that TNA boss Dixie carter is seriously considering bringing back vince Russo as head of creative (boy does she ever learn). Russo in my opinion has been a failure as TNA head of creative. In late 2006 through to 2011 Russo didn't have any effective on TNA product expect in a bad way. Take for instance that TNA averaged 30,000 ppv buys a month during it's peak in 2005 as well as never really being able to effect the tv rating it gained on spike tv each week during this period (TNA rating stayed within the 1.3 to 1.5 range throughout his years as head of creative). Also TNA had gotten better (during the NYC tv tappings for sure) with Russo gone and I can't see why Dixie is yet again turning back to Russo. Jim ross reportable spoke to TNA last month about TNA ex lead announcer mike tenay possibly coming in for the joint new japan GFW ppv wrestling kingdom 9. Ross also offered TNA a free spot of advertising on the ppv for tenay's services but TNA turned that offer down. Talking of tenay he has reportable been replaced by ex wwe announcer josh Matthews as TNA new lead announcer. Shame because again it seems if TNA has learned nothing and during it's relaunch be viewed as nothing more than wwe lite after employing another former wwe announcer. TNA has announced that they will be returning to New York for it's impact tappings in January and the group will record 6 episodes which will all air on TNA new home destination America. Bobby Roode and Lashleys third match has been announced by TNA to be taking place on a special live impact on January 7th, so far these two have clicked and worked well together in the ring and I can't wait for the third match together. Finally TNA will be making a new programme to air on destination America it will be called TNA unlocked and will debut on January 17th 2015.
ROH
Ring of Honor ended the year on a high (unlike wwe) with ROH final battle 2014 ppv being wildly regarded as ppv of month (until NXT R:Evolution aired). ROH pulled a reported 1,400 paying fans to the venue terminal 5 in New York City. The ppv buy rate hasn't been released yet but I'm expecting a solid 15,000 buys for ROH. Here are the quick results from ROH final battle for those who missed it, Hanson toppled Caprice Coleman, Jimmy Jacobs and Mark Briscoe in a four corners survival match which was a very good opener. Roderick Strong hammered Adam Page in a descent outing, Michael Elgin beat Tomasso Ciampra in another good outing. The Young Bucks Matt&Nick Jackson and ACH bested Cedric Alexander and The Addiction Christopher Daniels&Kazarain in a very good spot fest which was a six man tag. In the worst match of the night Moose rolled over RD Evans after Veda Scott swerve turned on rd to cost rd the match. Jay Lethal beat Matt Sydal in another very good match to retain the ROH television title. reDRagon Kyle O'Riely&Bobby Fish pinned Time Splitters KUDHIDA&Alex Shelley in what was my match of the night to retain the ROH tag team titles and finally Jay Briscoe defeated Adam Cole in a fight without honor (no DQ) to retain the ROH world title in another very good match. My full review of the show is now up on the JWR Podcast blogspot page which is that jwrpodcast.blogspot.com , so go check it out. ROH tag wars begins on ROH tv this week with six team entered only three can progress to the final which will be a four way elimination tag match also involving ROH tag team champions reDRagon and also Kyle and bobby will put there titles on the line in this final match. Alberto Del Rio/El Patron has been confirmed to be making his ROH debut at the January 3rd show in TNA old stomping guards at the Nashville fairgrounds. Finally for the ROH section I take a look ahead and see what might be in store for ROH in 2015. Surely Adam cole is getting 'his' ROH title back at some point but maybe that is to obvious and that was why cole got beat by Jay Briscoe at the recent ROH final battle ppv but ROH must surely know like it's fans cole is the most deserving of the strap in 2015. reDRagon have been my tag team of the year and hopefully in 2015 they can continue to regin surpreme in the ROH tag team scene. Jay Lethal seems to be ROH second most dependable heel at the moment behind Adam cole and 2015 maybe a face turn and break away from truth martini and feud with cole could be possible. Michael Elgin is now a heel thanks to ROH fans but maybe after a feud with Ciampra he'll be accepted back as a face by the ROH faithful, if not then I can't see what's next for Elgin in 2015. Hanson is surely in for a big push in 2015 after a number of impressive showings in 2014 maybe he's the guy to end Jay lethal run as ROH television champion. I fully expect the decade to split into two in 2015 with Roderick strong and jimmy Jacobs feuding with Adam page and BJ Whitmer.
Elsewhere
New japan and GFW joint ppv, wrestling kingdom 9 is still set for January 4th and features a stacked card top to bottom. Jim Ross will be lead announcer for the show which I'm sure you all know but the second announcer is yet to be confirmed as of writing. In the main event IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defends against Kazuchika Okada in what could very well be a math of the year candidate. IWGP intercontinental champion shinsuke Nakamura defends his belt against Kota Ibushi and again this has protential to be a match of the year candidate. IWGP Jnr Heavyweight Tag Team Champions reDRagon Kyle O'Riely&Bobby Fish will defend there belts against Time Splitters Alex Shelly&KUSHIDA, Forever Hooligans Rocky Romero&Alex Koslov and The Young Bucks Matt&Nick Jackson. Also a New Japan Rumble (some sort of battle royal more than likely) has been added to the card. As well as Minuro Suzuki facing MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba in a UWFI rules match (basically a worked shoot match), Tomohiro Ishii defends the Never Title against fellow bruiser Togi Makabe. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Rysuke Taguchi defends against Kenny Omega, IWGP Tag Team Champions Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson of the Bullet Club defend against the team of Shibata and Hirooki Goto. In a six man tag Bullet Club members Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett and Yuijiro Takahashi face off with Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Tomoaki Honma. Toru Yono will have three to be determined partners to do battle with Davey Boy Smith Jr, Lance Archer, Shelton Benjamin and Takashi Iizuka in an eight man tag and last but currently not least is AJ Styles facing Tetsuya Naito on what will be a stacked 4 hour spurt show held in the world famous Tokyo Dome. Chikara presented it's season 14 finale Tomorrow Never Dies in it's old stomping grounds at the old ECW arena on December 6th. Here are some quick results from what was a another very good show by the group but had a hard time topping chikara you only live twice and king of trios 2014 shows earlier this year. Heidi Lovelace rolled over Missile Assualt Ant to win the annual chikara Young Lions Cup, Ashley Remmington beat super heel Juan Francisco de Coronado in a German suplex match. Eddie Kingston bested Jimmy Jacobs in a very good match to end eddies on/off heel turn and assiotatiion with the flood. The Devistation Corpration Blaster McMassive&Max Smashmaster defeated The Throwbacks Dasher Hatfield&Mr Touchdown in a best 2 out of three falls match to win the Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas (chikara version of the tag team titles) in another very good match which was my match of the night. Ultra Mantis Black downed Delirious (ROH booker/creative team member Hunter Johnson) In a loser leaves town match to end there near 3 year feud. The Flood flex Rumblecrunch, Jakob Hammermeier, Jaka, Nokken,Oleg Usurper, Sir Oliver Grimsly, Solider Ant&Volgar dropped Team Chikara Amasis, Fire Ant, Jervis Cottenbelly, Kodama, Obariyon, Opihidan, Silver Ant&Worker Ant in a Tomeo Cibernetico (Chikara version of an elimination tag match), with Soilder Ant last eliminating Fire Ant in another very good match. Finally Icarus pinned Decucalion in a steel cage match (only the second ever cage match in chikara's history) to retain the Grand Championship (chikara version of the world title). Lucha Underground continues to present must watch tv on the El Ray network each and every week and in the new year it has already been announced that the group will be recording it's second season and word is Alberto del rio will be involved, which is obviously very good news for the group. But there was also bad news this month for lucha underground with reports El Ray havent been that impressed with television ratings due to how advertising is sold for the show (basically ad revenue has been low due to low ratings with the show averaging 20,000 to 35,000 viewers so far this season). Lucha underground fans should remember this El Ray had been behind a show they were heavily pushing called El Matador but the show was recently canned by the network due to low ratings.
And Now Something Completey Different
Finally here are my top ten predictions for 2015. 10. Regins beats Lesnar- a pretty obvious one but it looks like wwe will force roman (who is a solid worker but not good enough on the microphone yet) down your throats and make him the top guy in the wwe come wretlemania. 9. Wyatt vs Taker for WM:31- another obvious match which wwe will book for it's super show in April but how can Wyatt be considered a genuine contender to beat taker on the grandest stage, I suppose that all depends on how the creative book this feud and build Wyatt properly come showtime. 8. Rollins cashes in on Regins at Mania- not so obvious this one but to me it would make sense to have Rollins successfully cash in on roman following what will be likely and that is Regins winning the wwe title at mania. Wwe fans have rejected more from wwe creative an ever before and with Regins clearly being the chosen one maybe after a hard fought win over Lesnar he gets blindsided by Rollins and Rollins successfully cashes in and walks out of mania the wwe undisputed champion. 7. TNA finds a New/old Direction- over the years TNA has been panned by critics and fans alike as being to wwe lite. The product was by far more exciting and fresh feeling in 2005/06 peak and my hoping is that they get back to doing what they do best and that is booking to it's strengths and that is by promoting pro wrestling not sports entertainment. 6. Sinclair Invest More Money Into ROH- with TNA now on destination America and Lucha underground failing to find a large audience maybe it's time for ROH owners Sinclair to do what so many want to see the league do and that is invest heavily in the production side of things and have a real go at legitimately becoming pro wrestling number 2. It's an achievable goal for 2015 but will Sinclair go all out and invest the right amount of money for ROH to grab that spot. 5. Daniel Bryan returns but doesn't get buried- there's a strange side to vince McMahon and that is he's an old school guy who appreciates a performer tapping up his injuries and just gets on with it. In Bryan's case this wasn't his fault he had some bad medical advice and I hope vince doesn't hold that against him and decide he's nothing more than a b+ plus player. There is curently evidence to back up this claim with many 80's and 90's performers reminding us on shoot DVDs and podcast that this is the way vince operates, don't me well go check out Essa Rioas story. 4. Sami Zayn Stays in NXT for now- last month if you read the round up you should know I was praising Zayn for his work and proposed a idea for him to come up to the main roster (don't know what it is go back and check it out) but now that idea looks like it clearly won't happen. So rather than move him up to the main roster why don't they just let him stay where he is for now. Because in all seriousness at this point I can't see vince taking this tremendous talent seriously at all and I do like Bryan worry for Zayn with McMahon booking his career. 3. Raw Is Bore- wwe main show has been a dud almost all year long the stop/start booking is really driving me away and stopping me from caring about anything or anyone on the main shows. As for 2015 I can't see it getting any better and raw and Smackdown will continue to fail in creating any new stars or interesting feuds. 2. The Indie Scene Continues to Grow- independent wrestling hasn't been this good since 2004 with so many talented performers out there working smaller shows. It can only continue to grow and I'm looking forward to another year of growth for PWG and Chikara just to name a few. 1. Brock goes back to MMA- seriously I think the wwe Brock Lesnar relationship will end following mania. Brock is hot property still in the world of MMA and once his wwe deal expires I wouldn't be surprised if the current wwe champion rejoined UFC or joined upstart group Bellator. One thing is for sure with wwe network failing the way it has this year the question we must ask is can wwe really afford to have Brock on it's books. My answer is no and I fill Brock will leave wwe for one last big pay day back in the world of fighting.
Well that was the month of December in the world of pro wrestling, if you've read this then thank you and hopefully it brings you back for next months round up. Finally id like to address the lack of sort of live tweets over the last two months, well I've been very busy and hopefully in the new year I will be able to get back to doing my sort of live tweets. Until then as bill apter would say I'll see you at the matches.
