Howdy, buckaroos.
First off, thanks to everyone who's sending in questions. Do keep them coming.
Today I'm going to go with a question I've been wanting to ask for a few weeks now, and tomorrow I'll resume with the questions that have been sent in.
What's the most surprised you've been since entering the realm of Smarkdom? Once you become a smark, hip to the game, it's almost impossible to be surprised, because news just isn't kept. However, from time to time it can happen. So, how'd they get you?
For me, it was when DDP was revealed as the stalker. Weeks prior I heard the unaltered voice, and was rather disappointed that Vince McMahon was once again going to be a payoff. Boo to that, I thought. Then I was watching at home, and holy shit, it was DDP. I literally jumped up to my feet in excitement.
Also, when Cena debuted at the 2008 Rumble that was pretty great too.
How say you?
First off, thanks to everyone who's sending in questions. Do keep them coming.
Today I'm going to go with a question I've been wanting to ask for a few weeks now, and tomorrow I'll resume with the questions that have been sent in.
What's the most surprised you've been since entering the realm of Smarkdom? Once you become a smark, hip to the game, it's almost impossible to be surprised, because news just isn't kept. However, from time to time it can happen. So, how'd they get you?
For me, it was when DDP was revealed as the stalker. Weeks prior I heard the unaltered voice, and was rather disappointed that Vince McMahon was once again going to be a payoff. Boo to that, I thought. Then I was watching at home, and holy shit, it was DDP. I literally jumped up to my feet in excitement.
Also, when Cena debuted at the 2008 Rumble that was pretty great too.
How say you?
Probably when I found out that The Rock wasn't really Kid Rock's father. It's a sad day when you can't even trust pro wrestling anymore.
ReplyDeleteEric Bischoff as being announced as the GM Raw it was surreal to see him come out and hug Vince McMahon. I don't think it had leaked out in advance either.
ReplyDeleteWWE could of done a great surprise of their own with RVD at MITB this year.
ReplyDeleteRick Rude appearing on both a live Monday Nitro and a taped episode of Raw on the same damn night. That was a WTF moment.
ReplyDeleteThe Rock going over at WM28. At the time there was no leak of a 29 rematch so the assumption was just that Rock would pass the torch and be done. Guess that whole pesky home town crowd got in the way of stuff.
ReplyDeleteCM Punk winning vs. John Cena and leaving with the title at MITB'11. Hands down.
ReplyDeleteThe taz/ mike awesome/ tommy dreamer thing. Having a wwe guy beat a wcw guy at a ECW show was pretty crazy and I had no idea taz would go back for that. Can't believe heyman used that to get the belt on Aldo Montoya but he's the creative genius, not me.
ReplyDeleteAnd then bailing on adr mitb cash in. That was a mark out moment for the even the smarkiest
ReplyDeleteFor me I got surprised more often even after becoming "smart" because I didn't start regularly checking news sites until a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteFor me it's gotta be Punk's victory at Money in the Bank. How could it be anything else? They did a great job of putting doubt in your mind. Either Cena straight up wins, Punk wins then someone cashes in MITB, or maybe somehow he wins. I just had no idea what was going to happen but I desperately wanted Punk to win. That's the peak of wrestling.
The Radicals showing up on Raw I think. I think we'd all heard they were on their way over but I was shocked when they not only showed up, but got involved and battered Bill Gunn & Road Dogg. What an episode of Raw that was
ReplyDeleteYep, that high spin kick and ADR's sell job of it followed by the waive and kiss to Vince...getting chills just thinking about it. It's hard for us grown ass cynical smarks to get excited and surprised, but that did it for me ten-fold.
ReplyDeleteAlso Benoit killing his family was quite surprising
ReplyDeleteJohn Cena returning at the 2008 Royal Rumble completely shocked me. We all thought he was out until after WM. Everyone in MSG LOVED it, and me too.
ReplyDeletePunk 2011 pipebomb was the most excited I ever got as a 'smark'. It was just so real and rebellious I didn't think for one moment they'd allow it to happen considering how OCD Vince got interms of controlling every part of the program.. not to mention it was super PG at this point as well with literally no layers of depth anywhere on the shows. So that was an amazing adrenaline pumping surprise.
ReplyDeleteAlso I'll admit it I totally fell for Mark Henry's retirement speech, I literally jumped off my seat when he slammed Cena.
They did blow that surprise on the commercial break. "TELL ME I DID NOT JUST SEE THAT"
ReplyDeleteEdge cashing in MITB to defeat John Cena at NYR 06. I was a huge Edge fan dating back to the Brood days, so I was elated for him to finally win the big one, and even better that he won it from a guy that I just couldn't get behind as champion (and was getting the rocket push to boot). COMPLETELY caught off guard there.
ReplyDeleteas much shit as he gets, matt hardy's surprise return in '05 was well done
ReplyDeleteand the follow up?
...matt hardy's surprise return in 05 was well done
1. Bischoff coming to Raw...somehow missed that on the webs.
ReplyDelete2. Bret and HBK making up on Raw
3. Bruno agreeing to the HOF
It would have been a mark out moment for sure, but it makes infinitely more sense to advertise that.
ReplyDeleteThe demise of Michael McGillicutty/the genesis of Curtis Axel as the newest Heyman guy.
ReplyDeleteIn a couple weeks my answer will be "when Ted Dibiase Jr. ambushed Daniel Bryan on his way to the ring, took his spot, and won Money in the Bank."
Plus that video promo was fantastic
ReplyDeleteThey did and I had to keep watching because I couldn't believe it. Was that Eric Bischoff? What the hell?
ReplyDeleteI'm with you about Henry's speech a few weeks back. It was perfect.
ReplyDeleteJericho's return at this year's Rumble was great. The crowd was completely surprised, and he became the most over guy in the match.
ReplyDeleteCena's Rumble 2008 return really made me smile. It brought back memories of wrestling before the internet. Then he won the Rumble and it made me even happier!
ReplyDeleteI always felt there would be a rematch. I actually was thinking a Best of Three type scenario. I never saw Cena defeating Rock @ Mania 28.
ReplyDeleteMeltzer reported it a few weeks earlier.. I was expecting it.
ReplyDeleteThat was pretty fantastic. Edge held the damn thing forever, and we had no idea that a MiTB winner could even do such a thing. Not to mention how well it fit with Edge's character. One of the greatest title wins of all time.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on Henry's retirement speech. One of the best played moments in recent history. A rare combination of shock, joy, and anger.
ReplyDeleteThe one that immediately comes to mind for me is the moment Punk kicked Del Rio in the head and walked out with the belt. With McMahon threatening Cena with his career on the Raw prior I had a hunch that with such dramatic stakes it would be silly not to use them post-MitB, setting up corporate Del Rio vs Cena because Cena couldn't get the job done, but that moment when Punk begins to smile with Del Rio out cold in the ring...couldn't believe it was happening.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Meltzer, Henry took the speech in a different direction than originally planned and you see the result.
ReplyDeleteRic Flair returning to Raw the day after Survivor Series 2001. Don't remember seeing a thing online pertaining to that return.
ReplyDeleteHeck, I wish it was forever. He actually only held it 3 weeks before losing it to Cena at the Rumble. Maybe you're thinking of later that year when he won it from RVD in a triple threat on Raw and held it for almost 3 months before losing it back to Cena in the TLC match at Unforgiven?
ReplyDeleteOh, there definitely was. Flair had been confirmed for at least a month before that, but until they announced the "winner take all" match at SSeries, everyone assumed he would just be brought in to give the Alliance some credibility. Probably for the better that didn't happen.
ReplyDeleteCaliber was refering to the mitb briefcase.
ReplyDeleteEdge cashing it on Cena was pretty fucking spectacular. Sucks that it went over so well, a post-match MITB cash-in is now the de facto way to win a championship in the company.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, duh. Downvoting myself for that one.
ReplyDeleteAlmost everything that happened in 1997 with the Hart Foundation or its members. The "I quit" speech from Bret Hart in January, the "this is bullshit" rant from Bret in March, how awesome the execution of the reunion took place (even if the results were known for that week's Raw), Pillman's return even though his ankle was never healing like it should have...all the way down to the infamous screwjob. I had just gotten my smark certificate in the mail at the age of 14, and 1997 just threw me for a loop.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't watching the product in 2008, but this isn't the first time I've heard the '08 Cena Rumble entry was a big surprise. Was he expected to be on the shelf longer or something?
ReplyDeleteYeah, he'd been injured in October and the thought was that he was gone until May (at the earliest).
ReplyDeleteYeah, that definitely should have led to an actual reign for Edge. Edge vs. Cena at Wrestlemania, perhaps with Orton vs. Triple H for the other title? The Rey thing kind of fell flat anyway and could have easily happened at a different PPV.
ReplyDeleteHell yes. That was mark-out city at the time. Especially when it resulted in kick-ass matches on Raw and Smackdown for a few weeks
ReplyDeleteHe had surgery on his cervical spine like three months earlier, nobody thought he was coming back till sometime after Mania. My second spinal surgery was the exact same one Cena had (they cut an incision near the throat, move it all to the side, take out the degenerative fucked up disc and replace it with a steel like mesh cage disc). take it from someone who knows him coming back that early is nothing short of amazing. I had other things wrong with my spine at the time too but three months later my neck and shoulders were still pretty sore. So I was VERY shocked to see him back at the Rumble.
ReplyDeleteHonest to God, I think that Cena was created by scientists to come up with Vince's wet dream of a main eventer. Tall? Check. Ripped? Check. Handsome? Check. Durable? Check. Driven? Check. Charismatic? Check. Obsessed with wrestling? Check. Good in the ring? Check.
ReplyDeleteDurr, that SHOULD read "the reality exceeded my wildest dreams".
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to say this now but I didn't think Cena was going to win just because it was in Miami and I couldn't imagine Cena not getting booed out of the city if he won.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a real shame that the whole Wrestlemania thing had to get in the way. Cena/HHH was more or less pencilled in from day 1, so Edge became something of an afterthought. It's a shame that they booked themselves into that corner, since Edge was white hot after winning the title, but had to settle for feuding with Foley (not knocking that match though, it was incredible). Stuff happens, I suppose.
ReplyDelete@Caliber_Voorhees made me think of something: what if the DDP stalker angle had been used to kickstart the invasion? You could have had the WCW guys use guerrilla tactics like that to get at the WWF guys.
ReplyDeleteLIES! NOBODY LOVES JOHN CENA ON THE INTERNET! NOBODY DOES THIS TO THE WIFEBEATER! ZANDIG, WIFEBEATER, NICK MONDO, WE ARE THE MOST ULTRAVIOLENT FORCE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH! OHHHHH MAAAAA! OHHHHHH!
ReplyDeleteEasily Punk's promo. I was so bored with Raw at that point I wasn't watching but was too lazy to delete the DVR. I just happened to be Twitter around 11pm and saw guys like Bret Hart talking about Punk's promo. Went back and watched and was marking out for the stuff Punk was saying.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but I'd say that it was still hard to be smart to the biz in 1997. Nowhere near the same amount of info as we have now.
ReplyDeleteYep. Which is why it baffles me how they use Cena. Fans are sick of him. The office wants him to be the top babyface. So give him some time off! EVERYBODY gets a great reaction during a return. Had Cena gotten stretchered at Extreme Rules last year against Brock, and laid out six months, you'd probably see a fraction of the ill will towards him today.
ReplyDeleteI was at MSG for the Rumble. We couldn't see the entranceway, so when Cena's music hit, everyone went WTF and thought it was some wrestler going for cheap heat.
ReplyDeleteMSG losing their shit for Cena and then realising they hate him so they begin booing always cracks me up
When Ciclope won the Cruiserweight battle royal, unmasked as Dean Malenko, and started kicking the tar out of Jericho.
ReplyDeleteIt was glorious.
Rick Rude on Nitro and Raw simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteI leapt from the sofa.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why that angle hasn't been ripped off more. Juvy and Malenko joining forces to take down Jericho (with Juvy getting a title shot the next night from Malenko) was awesome storytelling.
ReplyDeleteYou mean......he DIDN'T follow the script?
ReplyDeleteWWE and wrestlers: TAKE NOTICE.
I somehow missed the news that Jeff Jarrett was coming back to WCW in 99'. I was pretty shocked as I was watching Nitro live when he popped in.
ReplyDeleteI'm always so bitter about that because I was at the Raw taping, so I already knew it was taped. Of course then again seeing him on Nitro I already knew for a fact he'd be on Raw later so I guess I got a surprise anyway.
ReplyDeleteOh, no I was referring to the MiTB briefcase. He held onto it for so long that people forgot about it.
ReplyDeleteIt's so true. There are some people who are absolutely born to do what they do, and it's amazing seeing that. Like, Arnold and bodybuilding, Cena with wrestling, Bruce Lee with martial arts.
ReplyDeleteI went on a self imposed internet lockout until I watched an episode of Raw all the way through once, and didn't finish it on the DVR until probably Wednesday or Thursday that week...and missed The Miz becoming WWE champion. I had him pencilled in as the first failed cash-in, so that was definitely a shocker.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I thought they were going for when it happened. I thought "this is it! DDP got into the head of 'Taker, now the rest are going to follow suit! Brilliant!"....then, absolutely no.
ReplyDeleteNext you'll say wrestlers should know their characters and act accordingly.
ReplyDeleteUnless it's Dusty Rhodes/Midnight Rider or Hulk Hogan/Mr. America. Then is just sucks.
ReplyDeleteWell yeah. I was thinking Pillman/the Yellow Dog.
ReplyDeleteI'll tell ya what - watching Savage job to La Parka who turned out to be DDP was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteThis was mine as well. That's the first and last surprise jump I can remember.
ReplyDeleteMATT HARDY SHOWING UP TO ATTACK EDGE REALLY THREW ME OFF
ReplyDeleteYeah that was cool.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched most stuff (raw, ppvs) live since 05 so most stuff since then I find out about after the fact.
ReplyDeleteThat said, HHH walking out of WM2000 with the title, Foley's first WWF title win (avoided raw spoilers in general for the taped shows, no one mentioned it to me in school that day and I didn't watch any of nitro),HBK superkicking Rock on the first regular episode of Smackdown, Rock beating Cena and sadly every near fall in the last 10 minutes of the HHH/HBK-Taker matches at Mania.
Plus stuff already mentioned (DDP/Stalker, Matt Hardy in 05, Malenko as Ciclope,
Great momemt
ReplyDeleteEric Bischoff showing up on RAW. Shocked the FUCK out of me.
ReplyDeleteNext up: The ECW guys turning on their WWF partners on RAW during the InVasion angle. I still can't believe they fucked it up.
Meh, I liked Mr. America. I get that Hogan sucked in the ring, but it was still funny. "He's American-ing up, Cole!"
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was fairly surprising
ReplyDeleteYeah, I honestly thought that was the intent (at the time). When DDP unmasked, I thought "now the WCW invasion starts". They could have started that way, with the WCW guys planning to single out individual WWF guys. In this case, Page stalks Taker's wife en route to kicking off their feud.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I wonder what the plans were for Wrestlemania when they thought Cena wouldn't be out. I'm assuming Orton vs. HHH, instead of the triple threat.
ReplyDeleteGreat choice. That really was such an oddity, having WWF vs. WCW on an ECW show, yet it somehow became a footnote in history. Could have been the opportunity to get moving toward RVD beating the winner on PPV
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was the best part. Doing the swerve of Punk beating Cena was one thing, because the MITB cash-in would have been the obvious "out". When he kicks ADR and bails, you knew something cool was happening.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the storyline seemed to call for Cena avenging the WM27 Rocky screwjob, but putting him over in Miami would not have gone over well
ReplyDeleteYeah, that shit was incredible. As SOON as you started looking at each guy and realized "it's all the ECW guys..." they all turned and the delivery was perfect. Should have been the biggest thing in years.
ReplyDeleteYeah, HHH retaining at Wrestlemania was a surprise, albeit the wrong kind, IMO. I was at that show live and it really didn't play well. More of a collective groan than a shock
ReplyDeleteI like your version better for sure
ReplyDelete