Will The Rock Walk His Talk?

With Monday Night RAW fast approaching, and a guaranteed appearance of The Great One looming, three big questions are plaguing the minds of Professional Wrestling fans everywhere.

The first question is the obvious one: Will The Rock actually deliver on his promises-a-plenty? Saying "I am never, ever going away" is not only a huge promise to make, but it's actually as crystal clear as a freshly Windex'd window. There's no reading between lines in a statement like that, The Rock has simply stated that from here on out he will always be a part of the WWE.

Thus far, his presence has been felt primarily via satellite, through which The Most Electrifying Man In All Of Entertainment loses about 10,000 volts. Fans have taken to the rooftops crying "Fraud!" among other things, but the bottom line is that The People's Champ will be live on RAW this Monday, WrestleMania on Sunday, and Monday Night RAW after that. Two weeks, three electrifying appearances that I think will answer all of the pending questions and uncertainties surrounding The Rock.

At this point in time, I can't realistically see The Rock not laying a hand on John Cena. And if The Rock ends up laying the Smackdown on Cena, how could that not lead to at LEAST one match? Which brings me to my next question:

Can The Rock still go? Seven years is a long time to be away from the ring, and I would imagine Rocky's got a few inches of rust on him right now. He obviously won't be wrestling any dark matches, house shows or anything like that before jumping right into his first headlining match. So you've got to think: If The Rock is not intending on wrestling more than one match, will he wrestle at all?

Shawn Michaels was gone for four years, and when he returned to fight Triple H at SummerSlam 2002, he intended it to be a one-time-only match. He details in his book how he specifically requested a Street Fight, since that is one of the easiest and least technical matches to wrestle, since he had so much ring rust. Just to put in to perspective what four years away from the ring can do to a legend like HBK.

Would The Rock really want to risk wrestling one single match with seven years of ring-rust on him, and having his final WWE match be a shit show? There's only one way to get, and keep, the ring rust off and that's to wrestle on a regular basis. So at this point, I'd say it's either ten matches or none for Rocky. I think we all share the same preference.

While questions and controversy continue to swirl around The Rock, the only thing we can do is wait and see. We may never get answers to these questions at all. The Rock may just disappear one day, and leave us forever wondering when he'll be back. And it may be seven days, seven years, or... never. But I'm confident that the next two weeks will be very telling of The Rock's intentions, what we can realistically expect from him, and will answer perhaps the Greatest question of all: Are we truly entering into The People's Era?

Love Him Or Hate Him.

There's a lot to be said about John Cena. Good and bad. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the guy, so let's dissect this a little bit.

On the one hand, he has very limited ability in the ring. Unlike most of the big names in the WWE, Cena actually got into the business rather late in his life, and didn't come up on the independents at all. He was trained by one of the WWE's training schools, and broke out from there, although The Miz was much of the same story. I simply don't care for Cena's wrestling style whatsoever; you will never see anything unpredictable from him, and that's a good way to lose the intelligent wrestling fans quickly.

At the end of the day, all big decisions come down from the man himself, Vince McMahon, and I know that Cena's gimmick of 'Hustle. Loyalty. Respect. Never back down, never quit.' is the product of Vince and the WWE Creative Team, but unfortunately Cena is the messenger and I absolutely detest the creature that he has turned in to. The Doctor of Thuganomics was great TV. It was edgy, it was entertaining, and it was a lot more of Cena's actual personality than his current gimmick. Again, it may appeal to the little kiddies of the WWE Universe, who love seeing Superman save the day again, but the older and smarter fans like seeing Superman come up short every now and again.

On the other hand, though, there is no denying that John Cena may possibly be the hardest working man in the entertainment business. Not only that, but he manages to somehow remain one of the nicest as well, and this I can personally attest to.

I met Cena on September 18, 2006. I was down in Montreal, with my parents, to see the WWE Supershow that was rolling through town. The show was amazing, and is probably my second favourite of all that I have attended, and we were also staying at the hotel that a large portion of the WWE roster happened to be checked in to.

We were waiting down in the lobby, watching the WWE Superstars roll in to the hotel, and my mother was somehow lucky enough to find herself enjoying some friendly conversation with the one and only Ric Flair (Wooooh!). Stars like Carlito, Jerry Lawler, and a couple of Divas walked through the lobby, signing an autograph here and there, but suddenly, and without warning, a buzz began to make its way through the crowd, and before I knew it, everyone was outside; Cena had arrived.

Security cleared the fans to either side of the doorway, so Cena could get through, and when the limo door opened, all hell broke loose. Cheers, boos, taunts, and expletives flew at Cena from all angles, and the tension was almost unbearable. I couldn't believe some of the things people were saying to him, inches from his face. "Fuck you, Cena!" "You fuckin' suck!" It's never been put into clearer perspective for me what these guys go through on a day-to-day basis, and Cena did not look happy. After a PPV and RAW back-to-back, he was clearly beat up, and tired.

It was at this moment in time that a particularly idiotic fan decided it would be a good idea to reach out and grab Cena's shoulder. Cena turned on a dime, and went nose to nose with the man who violated his personal space. It took about five seconds of inaudible words out of Cena's mouth to put a sheepish look on the man's face, and also silence the entire crowd of people. Very tense moment.

Cena went inside the hotel, and waited in line with everyone else to check in to his room. Somehow (and I'll never really understand how) security managed to make every single Cena hater disappear, and by the time he had checked in to his room, he came over to the group of about 50 of us who were actually happy to see him. The guy had just been through a hellacious Tables, Ladders & Chairs match, and RAW the next night and had visible battle wounds.

No doubt the only thing he wanted to do was go to bed, but he came over and spent about an hour signing autographs and taking pictures with every single person who was there. And for that, as much as I can't stand him on my television, I have the utmost amount of respect for him. From his physical state, to the fact that he'd just been harassed and disrespected, I was totally impressed with how much he gave back to his fans.

So Cena, I'll almost always be cheering every time you get put on your back for the 1-2-3, but as a person your class and hard work goes a long way, and I'll always have a lot of respect for how much you give back to the business and to your fans.

(Now goddamnit Jericho, include Winnipeg on your book tours, because I need a picture with you next!)

It's Official: I'm Psyched.

While watching Monday Night RAW last week, I received a truly shocking and truly wonderful surprise. There, on my television screen, was an advertisement for a RAW house show on May 27 in... WINNIPEG! I couldn't believe it, I don't think it's even been a year since they were here last, and typically it's every two years or even more than that... Tickets are on sale this Saturday, but wait, there's more!

A penciled card has been released for the show, and it looks so delicious I can barely contain my excitement:

---
WWE Championship Match
John Cena vs. The Miz

Fan’s Choice Match – Submission Match or Falls Count Anywhere
Randy Orton vs. CM Punk

Fatal Four Way Match for the United States Championship
Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus vs. John Morrison vs. ?

Unified Diva Championship Match
Eve vs. The Bellas

R-Truth vs. Alex Riley

Special Raw Tag Team Match
Sin Cara & Evan Bourne vs. The NEXUS

Mark Henry vs. Tyson Kidd

The Great Khali vs. Ted DiBiase (w/Maryse)

Percy Watson vs. Zack Ryder
---

Yeah, ok, there's really only four matches on there that I really want to see, but they are great matchups.

I can't even articulate how over the moon I am about seeing Sin Cara team with Evan Bourne (seems the WWE was thinking along the same lines as me with wanting to get Sin Cara and Evan Bourne together... Though I'd still rather see them against one another). That match is going to blow the roof off the place. I've also never seen Bourne live, or Mistico obviously, so those will be awesome firsts for me.

Nikki will finally get to see John Cena in the flesh, which reminds me, I've never posted the picture of me and Cena on here, and I should. I will put it up within the next couple days, and also share the wild story behind that one...

So, if there's any non-fans out there reading this (there usually is), I highly recommend buying a ticket and checking out this show, even non-fans will get enjoyment out of this action, it promises to be a great night of wrestling. Tickets on sale this Saturday. See you there!

Click here for information and tickets!

Chris Jericho: Distinguished Alumni

For those who haven't seen this video already (especially all CreComms), you should definitely check it out. You can find it on the RRC website, but it's easier to just post from YouTube. Not quite as interesting to non-wrestling fans, but all CreComms should be able to get some enjoyment out of it. Very cool to hear a guy who has achieved SO much, attribute a lot of his success to CreComm. Anyways, enjoy the video: