The Wrestling Cafe

After last night’s edition of Raw, a couple of more matches were added to the WrestleMania 28 card. The current matches that are scheduled for the annual extravaganza are listed below.

• The Rock Vs. John Cena
• Chris Jericho Vs. CM Punk (WWE Title)
• Undertaker Vs. Triple H (Hell in a Cell)
• Sheamus Vs. Daniel Bryan (World Heavyweight Championship)

The card for WrestleMania 28 is already looking very good. There were rumors about having the Money in the Bank match being brought back to WrestleMania, so that would be a great addition as well. Also, Shaq is expected to appear at the event. He will most likely be facing Big Show, but no official plans have been revealed as of yet. Anyhow, expect WWE to add a few more matches in the next coming weeks.

Several WWE wrestlers were interviewed at the recent press conference for WrestleMania 29 in New Jersey. During the interview, John Cena teases that he may possibly be involved with a rematch against The Rock at WrestleMania 29 next year. The following is what he said during the interview.

“My boy Dwayne actually said he’s going to be there in some capacity for 29. So after I beat his ass in Miami, he’s going to have to get a little retribution.  So maybe we’ll have to do it again.”

The Rock is very entertaining, but more importantly, a huge draw for WWE. Before last year, he had completely isolated himself from the wrestling industry. He seems far more open to being associated with the business now though, so it would not be surprising at all to see him make an appearance next year. Him having another match with John Cena might be kind of a stretch though. I doubt that will happen. It’s great to see The Rock coming back to help the business that made him an international icon.

For those of you who are still unaware, TNA has launched their own pro wrestling promotion in India. It’s under the name, “Ring ka King.” The debut episode aired a couple of weeks ago, and it garnered a huge TV rating of 2.2. That translates into approximately 14 million viewers. In comparison, WWE’s Raw usually has a viewership of about 4.5 to 5 million viewers per week.

This is excellent news for TNA, and it’s becoming obvious that fans in India are very welcoming of the new promotion. This will significantly raise TNA’s awareness level as a company on a global scale. India has a huge population, and a great wrestling fan base as well, but they have always had to watch WWE. Ring ka King is serving as more than just an alternative because the show is broadcasted in India’s native language. Fans are able to relate to the show much better. Anyhow, it’ll be interesting to see what Vince McMahon and WWE do to gain such a huge viewership back. This is not going to make Vince too happy.

Alberto Del Rio was recently interviewed, and he gave some insight on hating the Miz in real life, his time in Mexico as a wrestler, and he covered a few other areas of interest. It should be noted that he’s also returning to the ring tonight for a WWE live event in the Cow Palace. He has been away from the road due to a serious injury he suffered about a month ago. Have a read of the interview below.

On his injury: “It’s the worst injury a man can suffer…  I completely tore my groin, so you know that’s painful. I had surgery,  they reattached the muscle from my leg to my hip. The doctor… did a great job.  Now I’m running, jumping, and ready to roll into the ring.”

Wrestling with a mask in Mexico: “There’s a big tradition  for masked men in Mexico. The most important match in Mexico is a mask vs. mask,  and the one who loses, loses his identity, his mask, everything. Here in the States the mask is not so important, people like to see your facial expressions, the way you talk, the way you move.”

What wrestling groupies are like:“It’s interesting… that’s all I’m going to say… there’s some ladies that really enjoy  wrestling and wrestlers.”

Which wrestlers he doesn’t like: “The  Miz! I hate The Miz. This is not part of the show, I really dislike like that guy. I’ve tried to punch him in the face several times. Not in the ring. I mean outside the ring. He’s like a little girl, he’s always running away from me.”

Why he hates The Miz:“There’s a big difference between The  Miz and I… I’m a real athlete. He’s just a loud, stupid little kid. He’s one of those guys who was probably bullied when he was in school and that’s the  reason now he’s so, so loud and he wants to get attention from everybody. But in my case, I’m the real deal.”

If Miz has a lot of female fans: “I don’t think so, because he’s fat and ugly.”

It seems like everyone has been turning on the Miz lately. Kind of hard to judge if he was staying in character during this interview, or if he was actually speaking freely. I think it was a mixture of both. Interesting interview nontheless.

The current plan is to have the Big Show face Shaq at WrestleMania 28 this year. Shaq is being advertised to appear on the Raw Supershow on March 5th in Boston, MA. It should be noted that The Rock is also scheduled to appear on Raw that night as well. The foundation for their match is already in place since Big Show and Shaq had an altercation on Raw a while back when Shaq appeared as the special guest host.

If this deal fullly goes through, it’ll be another match on the WrestleMania card that will be able to draw in many former, or even non-wrestling fans. Shaq has a huge following, and WWE will probably receive media coverage by him appearing as well. Excellent business move.

The Miz currently has a lot of backstage heat on him from WWE officials due to a series of events that occured. For some strange reason, the company is blaming the low Survivor Series 2011 PPV buyrate on him, and on top of that, during last night’s episode of Raw, he botched a move with R-Truth. The botching of the move resulted in R-Truth being severely hurt, and once Miz got backstage, he was reportedly “loudly disciplined” by Triple H himself.

This Miz has already been on a losing streak this year in 2012, and this is only going to make things worse. It’s a well known fact that WWE has a very corporate environment on a backstage level, and if a wrestler isn’t on good terms with management, it’s very difficult to get far in this company. We all make mistakes, but to put the blame on Miz for the low buyrate for Survivor Series is a bit of a stretch. WWE seriously needs to re-evaluate their product. Anyhow, let’s hope Miz is able to rebound from this sooner rather than later. He will be a big part of WWE in the coming years, so punishing him isn’t exactly in their best interest.

R-Truth may have suffered an injury at this week’s edition of Raw when he made the dive outside of the ring on to the Miz. Miz was supposed to have caught him, but instead, Truth went too far during the dive, and landed on his back. He needed help to walk backstage.

Let’s hope this is nothing too serious since WWE is already very thin on star power, and this would definitely not help. We’ll probably learn more about it soon.

WWE is currently advertising Shawn Michaels to appear at next week’s Monday Night Raw in San Diego, California. Michaels will be the first one to begin making special appearances leading up to WrestleMania, and it’s just something that the company does every year to build more excitement for the big event.

It’ll be interesting to see what exactly Shawn Michaels does. Many fans have been speculating that he will take part in Triple H and Undertaker’s rematch at WrestleMania this year as the special guest referee. That could potentially help add some refreshment to the match since this is a direct rematch from last year.

With the online wrestling community being highly critical about the way Chris Jericho returned, and the way his storyline is playing out, Jericho decided to respond today. The following is from his official Twitter page.

“Funny how some of u never stop complaining and think u know it all.  Just sit back and enjoy the ride…you’ll have a lot more fun!”

Sometimes the online community is a little too quick to jump to conclusions. They need to realize that at certain times, you really do need to let a storyline fully play out before deciding wheather or not it was successful. The same thing is valid here, and there’s no way of knowing how this is going to end.