MiTB Fallout and Build-up to Summerslam

Raw opens with Sheamus coming out and talking about MiTB. He says that he isn't stupid and that he knows very well that Bryan will take shortcuts to gain the title. He also notes how dangerous Bryan can be. He admits that he isn't much of a submission guy and that is a weakness. Regal comes out and apologizes for what happened at MiTB. He notes that he trained Bryan and it clouded his vision of being a good General Manager. So to make up for it, he allowed Bryan the night off so he couldn't get involved with Sheamus' match. To also apologize for what happened, he states that he wants to help train Sheamus in the art of submission wrestling. Regal says that tonight Sheamus will be facing Jack Swagger in a submission match.

After a few matches, we see Regal in a backstage segment. Miz bursts in, followed by security guards who hold him back from Regal. Miz is furious that Regal took him out of the MiTB match. Regal tells the security guards to leave. He apologizes to Miz and tells him that what he did was wrong. So to make up for it, Regal announces Bryan vs Miz at Summerslam for the MiTB briefcase. Miz smiles and proceeds to slap Regal. He thanks Regal for the match but says that is payback for what happened at the Pay-per-view. Regal nods and says that he deserved that.

Next, we see Ziggler in the ring with the WWE championship. He talks about how he had been working so hard for this title and that his last championship win was shameful. He talks about how he had been held back for so long and he finally broke the glass ceiling with the help of the Money in the Bank contract. He says that he wasn't sure if he would ever get the title and that winning the contract is the best thing that has ever happened to him, outside of this title win. He says that he owes someone else and that this person was supposed to be standing next to him tonight with the World title. He says that Kofi was screwed and that he should be celebrating with him.

Kofi comes out and says that Ziggler shouldn't worry about him. He is happy for Dolph and that he should enjoy the title. They hug and Dolph says that he still feels like he owes Kofi. Dolph talks about how they have had some great matches together over the past year and he asks the crowd if they would mind seeing one more match between the two. He says that he would be honored to face Kofi at Summerslam for the WWE title.

Suddenly, Punk's music hits. He comes out holding the MiTB briefcase that Dolph won. Ziggler and Kofi look confused until Punk says that there isn't anything to worry about and that he can't cash in. He congratulates Ziggler and says that he really deserves it. Punk talks about the parallels between them. How the briefcase allowed them to get what they deserved. He says that while Kofi is another person who deserves the title, Punk still has a rematch and he wants to use it at Summerslam. He continues by saying that they all shouldn't be talking about Summerslam right now though and that they should focus on Ziggler's celebration. Punk gives Dolph the briefcase and says that he was going to come out and use this to celebrate his successful title defense, but it works in this situation also. Ziggler opens the briefcase to reveal the newly designed WWE championship belt. Ziggler hands Kofi the old championship and they all pose in the ring with the new title. Kofi then suggests that he and Punk have a match to decide who faces Ziggler at Summerslam. Punk agrees and goes on to beat Kofi. Kofi seems disappointed but congratulates Punk.

Sheamus comes out for his match with Swagger accompanied by Regal. Vickie comes out with Swagger but is stopped by Regal. Regal tells her that she is banned from ringside. Swagger and Sheamus have a strong technical match with Swagger often getting the best of Sheamus. Regal coaches Sheamus and stops Sheamus from using the Brogue kick when Swagger is nearly beaten down. He says that he needs to make Swagger tap. As Sheamus approached Swagger to lock in a submission, Swagger capitalizes and locks in an ankle lock. Sheamus fights it, but taps. Swagger celebrates as Regal slides in the ring. Swagger goes to re-apply the ankle lock but Regal stops him. He tells him to leave. Swagger does and Regal helps Sheamus into the back.

The next week, Regal announces that Bryan has been sent home once again. He says that Bryan will have an interview via satellite tonight. In that interview, Bryan says that he won't cash in until the Pay-per-view after Summerslam and that he wants the match to be a submission match. He wants to give Sheamus time to prepare because Wrestlemania has haunted him. He says that he prays that Sheamus makes it to the PPV after Summerslam as he wants to decisively beat him.

2 weeks before Summerslam, Regal calls Miz into his office. He tells Miz that Bryan has already cashed in the briefcase and that he no longer holds the contract. He says that Bryan has a match at Night of Champions no matter what. He said that Bryan didn't want to risk not getting the shot so he insisted on cashing in early. Miz gets angry but Regal says that the only thing he can offer is a guaranteed title shot against whoever wins at that PPV. He says that the match will happen immediately after, in the same night. Regal says that the only condition is Miz has to beat Bryan at Summerslam for this to happen. Otherwise, Miz gets nothing. Miz agrees.

Over the next few weeks, Regal puts Sheamus into other submission matches with people like Alberto Del Rio, Christian and even Regal himself. Sheamus comes close, but only manages to make Regal tap out. This happens the week before Summerslam. Regal congratulates him and says that he has the fight of his life at Summerslam.

He questions Regal as to who his opponent will be at Summerslam. Regal says that the match will be against another great technical wrestler: John Cena. He says that if Sheamus can beat Cena, then he can beat Bryan.

Booking the World Championship to Money in the Bank

 To email with questions, comments and suggestions: criticalhitwrestling@gmail.com

My view of the WHC. The title should be utilized to get new guys into the scene. I enjoy the dynamic that WWE has created with the two separate brands. I don't mean Smackdown and Raw, but rather the hardcore wrestling fan scene with Punk and Bryan headlining many of these matches and the other scene being heavy story matches that Cena is involved in. Thus, I think that the WHC should be viewed as an “upper mid-card” title for the core wrestling brand. The WWE title should stand as the main title in this core division. It can also stand as a bridge into the more storyline heavy matches. 

I will be booking this up to Wrestlemania. It will focus on the WHC, but will sometimes include other feuds and shows. 

Money in the Bank PPV:

Big Show is challenging for the title vs Sheamus. Sheamus' draw is being a big guy who kicks ass. So pitting him against Big Show will be an impressive way to get him even more over. This match will obviously not be the best, but is the starting point for the title going into Wrestlemania, which is my end-goal for the WHC fantasy booking posts. WWE views Sheamus as an asset and the next Cena. So I want to give him some personality. Instead of having him be the guy who kicks everyone's ass, lets have him be at risk of getting his ass kicked. This match will be a plain brawl match. Have them go hard. It will make the match better. This won't be a technical marvel.

The week before Money in the Bank 2012, the new general managers are announced. It is none other than William Regal. Regal is welcomed by the new Smackdown manager Teddy Long, who has been in power for a few weeks. This is due to Teddy having a long track record of Smackdown managing and Raw being significantly harder to find a good GM for due to the track record of past GM's (Most recently Big Johnny) As a gift from Teddy, he allows Regal to run MiTB. Regal is happy and thanks Teddy, displaying his good intentions.

The opening match is the WWE Title contract Money in the Bank match with a newly turned and Vickie-less Dolph Ziggler winning. Ziggler has been not using heel tactics for the weeks leading into the PPV. In fact, he even sends Vickie away from his matches to ensure clean wins. Thus, he gets a good reaction for winning the briefcase. He even befriends Kofi Kingston, who he admits his respect for.

The next match will be the WWE championship match. Money in the Bank will mark the end of the Bryan/Punk feud (for now.) During the match, AJ proves to have been with Bryan all along and turns on Punk allowing Bryan to get the submission win. He celebrates (as he does with the Yes chants) and embraces AJ. He holds her up, along with the WWE championship as Punk lies in the corner looking up at him. Punk then proceeds to attack Bryan, but then is interrupted by Regal who demands order. Bryan/Punk continue to battle as Regal then slides in the ring to break them up himself. The locker room empties (with jobbers and some of the participants from the first MiTB match) to pull them apart. It is complete chaos. Regal convinces Punk to leave and walks him up the ramp. This shows Regal's new outlook on being a good GM who is ready to get his hands dirty.

Suddenly, Ziggler (who came out to help pull apart Bryan/Punk and is now in the ring with Bryan) hits the Zig-Zag on Bryan from behind. The other wrestlers who held back Bryan stand in disbelief as Ziggler's new friend Kofi runs down the ramp with the Raw briefcase. He hands it to Ziggler and helps Bryan up. Bryan looks at Kofi confused, only to get Zig-Zagged once again. Ziggler cashes in as the other wrestlers empty the ring to stop AJ from interfering. The bell rings and Ziggler wins the WWE championship. The crowd goes nuts.

After a few matches, there is a backstage segment where a prominent heel who is in the Smackdown MiTB (perhaps the Miz) is bullying Regal backstage. Regal explodes and knocks out Miz cold. The announcers now assume there are only 5 participants for this year's Smackdown MiTB. (6 MiTB members is the best option as 8 often seems too chaotic.)

Next is the MiTB match for World Heavyweight title contract. The 5 members enter and begin to have a grueling match. Kofi Kingston is about to win, only for Bryan to run down the ramp and knock him from the top of the ladder to the floor. Suddenly, Bryan is alone in the ring. He looks up at the briefcase as Regal's music hits. He comes out to a loud cheer and announces that Bryan is the 6^th participant. Bryan climbs up the ladder and wins, unopposed. Bryan quickly runs up the ramp and shakes hands with Regal. The crowd boos like crazy.

Next is the World Heavyweight championship match: Sheamus vs Big Show. Sheamus manages to beat Show with a double brogue kick (or something impressive.) Expectedly, Show then gets up and knocks Sheamus out. Everyone stands, expecting Bryan. His music hits and out he comes with the briefcase and AJ. He slides in the ring and the ref holds Bryan back as Sheamus is laying flat. Sheamus then stirs and Bryan smiles. The ref comes over to get the briefcase from Bryan. Bryan proceeds to knock out the ref with the briefcase. Then Sheamus. AJ then grabs a mic for Bryan. He says how he lost in 18 seconds at Wrestlemania and how it was the most embarrassing night of his life. He then says that he will avenge that loss by making Sheamus tap out on his terms. He kicks Sheamus in the head and leaves. The next match is the Cena match and closes out the PPV.

Next up will be the fallout of MiTB and Summerslam.

Intro to Critical Hit wrestling

To email me with questions, comments or suggestions: criticalhitwrestling@gmail.com

Note: thanks for coming and reading. I know the site looks really under-designed at this point, but I promise I am working on it. I simply wanted to get the introduction and first fantasy booking session done before the MiTB pay-per-view.

I had a wrestling related dream the other night. I was at college with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan and we all lived together. I remember that the place was rather large and Bryan was complaining about not getting a fair shot. So I called up Vince McMahon and said that I would be willing to walk away from the company if Bryan hadn't gotten a fair shot. Note that I had no idea what my job was with the company. I woke up right as Mark Henry and Bryan were to have a match.

I sat there, curled up in bed and thought about what I would do with the company. If I had my choice, my dream job would be head writer. I know that nearly everyone who wouldn't cut it as an actual wrestler would choose writer or booker the next best dream job with the WWE by default. But admittedly I have a real aspiration for it. I am currently going to school for film at a good university. One that pushes the independent filmmaking route with a strong theoretical background. It isn't one of those tech schools that simply put you on an accelerated course with no direction.

My first films started out like every other film student's work. To put this in perspective for non-film students, nearly 95% (a rough estimate) of all film student work contains one or more of the following: murder, suicide, hit-men, cigarettes, drugs, sex, nudity, swearing, love, voice-overs etc. It gets tedious viewing work after work that is nearly all the same. But this is something that most film students go through. At least in my experience, they start to branch out and think creative. They start thinking of a message that they want to convey first instead of coming up with a concept and then pasting whatever meaning they can to it.

My first film was about a kid who committed suicide and didn't know he was dead until he disappeared. My second film was about a straight edge gang which was supposed to mirror the yakuza. (I have been involved in the hardcore straight-edge music scene since I was a teenage and am a fan of yakuza films.) So my work was, admittedly, really shitty. Neither piece is available and have been since destroyed.

However, I eventually matured and started working on other stuff that was more personal. I am the type of person to take whatever interests I have and start to critically analyze the work. I've read more books and articles on media studies and specific subjects (for example: The Interactive Narrative Logic of televised Pro-Wrestling) Thus, with this maturing I am left asking the question that many “smart” wrestling fans ask themselves. Why do I watch this?

What I really mean is “Why do I watch the WWE?” To be quite honest, I think it is due to the availability of it. I love Chikara and many independents, but I simply can't keep up with them without spoilers. But when I think about this question, Chikara founder Mike Quackenbush's words seem to resurface. In an AVClub interview, he said “I’ve often said that wrestling is art; but for now, it seems consigned to remaining low art. It’s a male soap opera. We’ve got to earn our place at the grown-up table.”

Much like gaming, another art medium that I view as having real potential but is often viewed as “low-brow”, I want to be able to defend pro-wrestling for the best it can be. Unfortunately with WWE, and TNA which I don't watch regularly, these best moments are few and far between.

So, I decided to start this blog. I hope to find some sort of understanding in the art form that is pro-wrestling through fantasy booking and perhaps some other critical analysis. Part of this is also feeding into that dream job as head writer for the WWE. With that being said, I want a real discussion with these posts. I am an active member of /r/squaredcircle over on Reddit and enjoy a lot of the real good discussion there. So if what I say works or doesn't work, let me know. Send me suggestions and if my ideas would garner a reaction. I enjoy hearing from people and want to create an interesting dynamic here.

As for a few disclaimers: I realize I may sound pretentious. I get it and I don't mean to offend anyone. This is largely for entertainment. A small part of me hopes to get a massive readership which then can be utilized for getting me a larger audience, but what blogger doesn't have those ambitions. I simply want to create a discussion and work on my writing and critical analysis skills.

I also realize that much of my stuff may sound rather smarky. I don't mean it to be. I have a big history with independent wrestling and will always have a bias towards a guy who came from that place into the WWE. It plays to my love of underdog stories. I generally try to take other people's interests into consideration and also what I would do as a business man (in terms of the fantasy booking.) Also, in terms of the fantasy booking, I am new with this so most of the early stuff will probably be horribly formatted.

So with that said, thanks so much for reading. Spread this around if you enjoy it and let me know what I can do to make it better. Thanks again and happy reading.