The Cubed Circle
Newsletter
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In this week’s issue we cover the crazy man know as Nick
Diaz, the second RAW on the Road to WrestleMania, a possible WrestleMania 28
card and so much more! As always I welcome any feedback, either via the
comments section, email or the many social networks available. And with that
being said, please enjoy the issue.
Nick Diaz: MMA’s
Favorite Crazy Man
We have been over it what seems like a hundred times and
this will be the last time that it is said in the newsletter and this I swear.
This newsletter is primarily a professional wrestling newsletter and for the
most part MMA is not covered. For multiple reasons, first of all I started this
newsletter strictly to cover professional wrestling and wrestling related
topics and second is that I do not believe that I have sufficient knowledge of
MMA judging and it’s inner workings, to be able to effectively cover it on a
weekly basis.
But, it seems that I find myself covering MMA more and more
every month and this can be summed up to one single, simple cause. This cause
is the fact that professional wrestling is MMA and MMA is professional
wrestling, if you look closely enough you will be able to see this more and
more. From the way that fights are built up to the way that feuds develop and
progress in a logical manner, something that wrestling seems to have forgotten
for the past few years. It’s just that simple, there is no way to get around it
and therefore this relationship will not be mentioned in grave detail unless
something drastic takes place in either the MMA or the wrestling world that
warrants it.
MMA will be covered in this newsletter from time to time,
maybe not in great detail, but when I think that something is relevant to
wrestling or something occurs that just makes me think about their
similarities, I will include it in the newsletter without the long repetitive
prologue.
Nick Diaz and George St. Pierre have been locked in a heated
feud for months now, ever since GSP suffered a knee injury and Diaz cut a post
fight promo after a fight with BJ Penn, saying that GSP was faking the injury.
There seems to be some real heat between GSP and Diaz, which made it even more
important business wise for Diaz to win the fight against Condit. But, that was
not the case, Condit won the fight on a somewhat controversial judges decision
and Diaz said in a post fight interview that he was going to retire.
The MMA underground fired up in an outrage and even casual
MMA fans were talking about how Nick Diaz was “cheated” out of the interim
championship and a match with GSP. So what was the logical thing for Dana White
to do? He started preparations for a rematch, after all GSP will only be ready towards
the end of the year. So regardless of whether it was right or wrong to have rematch,
preparations began, with Condit being promised an above average payoff for the
match. Diaz was very happy with this and even said that he would fight for
nothing in a typical Nick Diaz statement. Suffice to say, the match was never
booked.
Ignoring the fact that this fight wouldn’t have even been
considered if Diaz won by the same exact decision, the fight was off. Rumors
circulated that Diaz had failed a drug test, these rumors were correct.
Regardless of whether you think cannabis is right or wrong,
on a recreational or medical basis, this was a violation of the UFC’s rules,
not only that, it was a violation of the Nevada State Athletic Commission
rules. Now Diaz is facing what looks like a minimum nine month suspension,
which would render the rematch argument a mute point.
There are now an argument taking place, on one hand you have
the people saying that it is only cannabis and therefore it shouldn’t be that
big of a deal and then you have the people on the other side saying that you
can’t trust Diaz and he should be fired. Both arguments are obviously very
extreme, but Diaz is a very polarizing personality. Obviously bringing him back
without any repercussions is out of the
question, it would be a huge sign over favoritism on the UFC’s part and it
would be very irresponsible. But, the people on the other side that argue that Diaz
should be fired or fight on the preliminary level or also in the wrong.
The people that say that Diaz should be fired for a
combination of violations and this most recent violation or arguing a very
hypocritical point. They said that the UFC was displaying favoritism towards
Diaz for considering a rematch, but firing him just because he is Diaz is also
unfair and is biased in the opposite direction.
At the end of the day Diaz his a big draw, he is an
interesting personality and he has heaps of charisma, but he is also reckless
and he lacks the business smarts that fighters like Sonnen and GSP possess, so
at the end of the say you have to be biased in a way. In my opinion he should
be put on a one year suspension, in that time if GSP holds on to the
championship then GSP could cut promos after each fight, calling out Diaz. This
would build to a huge money making fight, but at the end of the day, I’m a
simple wrestling fan, what do I know?
A Territory System in
2012?
If you are not aware this year marked the start of a
production headed by TNA in India, entitled Ring Ka King. The show is catered
to an Indian audience and is broadcast on the TV channel Colors. And the early
numbers seem to say that this project is going to be a success, at least in the
short term. According to the Wrestling Observer, Ring Ka King garnered a higher
viewership than Raw gets across the whole world combined!
This got me thinking, what would happen if TNA or any other
promotion that’s not WWE for that matter, begin to spread to other countries,
with each production catering towards the market at hand. According to the
success of Ring Ka King this could be a viable business model for TNA, they
haven’t been able to break through the US market in a big way, but they have
the backing of Panda Energy which helps them and hinders them in a way.
If TNA is able to make money from this Ring Ka King project,
then what will happen if they spread to other relatively untouched territories?
Can you imagine a successful promotion in China? With their huge market, a
market that is even bigger than the Indian market, if they are able to break
through there, then that promotion could become one of the biggest, currently.
Think about how many regions are relatively untouched by big
promotions: Australia, Parts of Europe, Parts of Africa, Brazil, Argentina and
China just to name a few. Even companies like New Japan under new ownership
seem like they ant to spread to different regions, granted the new NJPW
management seems a bit to ambitious and granted they are looking into the US
market, which is obviously not untouched, but even that showcases how the
global mindset seems to be taking over in some ways.
If the WWE’s business model doesn’t allow this kind of
globalization, then other promotions really have an opportunity to expand in
places that are seemingly out of the WWE’s reach. You have probably heard a
thousand times how the territories are dead and that they could never make a
resurgence, because we have the internet and a lot of the secrets of the
business have been exposed to the general public. But, if promotions begin to
set up shop in other countries, creating hotly contested hot spots, then maybe this
will be the future of the business. Will it happen? Who knows. But, I think
that you should keep a close eye on Ring Ka King and the events that follow.
Bits & Pieces
Second Raw on the
Road to WrestleMania
This week’s raw was another solid show, it had more on it
than last week, but it also had more flaws. They built to the Undertaker Triple
H and the Jericho Punk matches nicely, but they gave away the Elimination
Chamber mainevent on a free show, Miz almost murdered Truth and we had a
Smackdown mainevent given away for nothing.
From what I can gather it seems that the WrestleMania match
between Undertaker and Triple H will be a last man standing match, it would
only make sense given the fact that the entire argument that Triple H puts up
is around the fact that he walked out and Undertaker didn’t. Will this make for
a better match? Probably not. The near falls a key element that made there
previous match so good will be gone, but it still should be a good match.
The Punk and Jericho segment on the show was interesting,
Jericho came out and finally cut a promo, saying how people such as R-Truth,
The Miz and the high flyers on the roster stole his gimmicks basically. He then
said that Punk was the worst offender, Punk saying that he was the best in the
world was the worst insult to Jericho. So out came Punk, who was going to cut a
promo, but instead walked off, Jericho was going to hit him with a cheap shot
with the microphone, but hesitated. I can honestly say that this was the best
thing I have seen from the WWE in months.
The mainevent was honestly a complete mess, there were
botches left and right, Miz nearly killed Truth, Jericho botched the finish
with his foot on the ropes, the whole match was a disaster and the worst part
is that it wasn’t necessary. Why did they have to put all the combatants from
the chamber in one match? Why do we need to know who comes in last and spoil
the surprise? The answer is we don’t, but they did and it backfired.
Another problem was that
the crowd in the arena didn’t react half as good as they were expected
to. This could have been caused by the amount of footage shown on the Tron, but
I doubt it. This lessened the impact of the show, however this was not the
WWE’s fault.
Overall this week’s show was another solid one, although I
would have wanted better. This show continued the steady build to Mania which
was a plus.
Likely WrestleMania
28 Card
I have compiled a likely WrestleMania card, that could be of
interest.
1. Money in the Bank Ladder Match
2. Diva’s Championship Match
Beth Phoenix vs. Kharma
3. Big Show vs. Shaq
4. World Heavyweight Championship Match
Randy Orton/ Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus
5. WWE Championship Match
CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho
6. Last Man Standing Match
Undertaker vs. Triple H
7. John Cena vs. The Rock
Top Matches of 2012
1. SUWAMA
vs. Daisuke Sekimoto AJPW 2012/01/02 **** ¼
2. Davey
Richards vs. Eddie Edwards ROH Final Battle 2011/12/23 **** ¼
3. La
Sombra vs. Valador Jr. NJPW Fantastica Mania 2012/01/22 ****
4. Manami
Toyota, Hanako Nakamori & Sawako Shimono vs. Aja Kong, Mio Shirai &
Tsubasa Kuragaki Chikara JoshiMania Night 3 2011/12/04 ****
5. Ayako Hamada vs. Sara Del Rey Chikara
JoshiMania Night 3 2011/12/04 ****
6. CM
Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. The Miz TLC Match WWE TLC 2011/12/18 ****
7. Masato
Tanaka vs. Tomoaki Honma NJPW 2011/12/23 ****
8. Kevin
Steen vs. Steve Corino No DQ Match ROH Final Battle 2011/12/23 *** ¾
9. Hiroshi
Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki NJPW 2011/01/04 *** ¾
10. Hikaru
Shida vs. Yuzuki Aikawa Bull Nakano Produce Empress 2011/01/08 *** ¾
Next Week’s Issue
Next week we will be covering, the IWGP title change, RAW,
the news from the week and tons more. For more information, head over to
cubedcirclewrestling.blogspot.com.
Contact
Any Questions or Queries: Rubyclouding@gmail.com
Twitter: @RyanClingman
The home of Cubed Circle Wrestling www.cubedcirclewrestling.blogspot.com
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