Jiji Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 Match quality aside, the Cena Open Challenge was probably the best thing WWE has done all year. Wins and losses actually mattered, a mid-card title was important for the first time in like 10 years and the suspense of who will come out next was really cool. And then they botched the most important part, the passing of the torch. The most WWE thing of all. When they have something good going for them, they inevitably fuck it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewar Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 I thought they both had good years, but La Sombra's was just a little better. Cena would have got my vote over most of the field, but unfortunately not over La Sombra. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jrag Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 You're the Dolph Ziggler of seeding wrestling tournaments, Rippa! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 As long as I am not the Dolph Ziggler of comedy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tromatagon Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 or wrestling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 Or Amy Sch-, y'know, never mind, not gonna go there. The unfortunate denouement of the Cena Open Challenge was bad booking, but I also feel like the majority of what made it good was GOOD booking. The idea, let's see a list of surprise challengers for a midcard title against the company ace, was a damn good one. Yes, the matches were good, and the KO series in particular was super-meaningful in a way US title matches had not been in a decade, but if we're going to dismiss the bad part of it as booking, and not something that should factor in, I'm not sure we can hold it up as anything other than "Cena had good matches with good opponents", which isn't a bad thing, sure, but as the prime argument for Cena over La Sombra, it falls a little flat IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamBroken Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Cena's Cesaro matches were awesome. I enjoyed all the Cena/Owens matches and a few of the Cena/Rollins matches were pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NikoBaltimore Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I like La Sombra, I really do. I think he had more charisma with the mask as maskless version took some getting used to. But he sure is fantastic and I wish there was fancam footage of him against Sami. But Cena barely gets my vote. The attempts at indy moves was cute at first, but when he kept doing shit like the springboard stunner I was over it. However, for a guy in his spot he had the chance to say "Fuck off, KO's not beating me in his main roster debut" and he didn't. He's very giving to his opponents and seems to be crazy enough to be up for whatever they bring to the table. He protected Neville's Red Arrow, let Sami do his signature moves on him, and didn't seem to be selfish is the challenge matches. I like that about him and at least in this round he gets my vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 This amuses me, because if you did this last year, it should've been close. But Sombra is fucking awesome, and has always been. Cena loses a ton from doing the SuperIndy gimmick and pushing up a match style that's fucking awful. I would have liked to vote John Cena but he's been replaced by an evil doppelganger who must be stopped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Cena's A for effort actually went past the line and became a hindrance. Against Dolph Ziggler or someone, it'd still be enough to give him the nod but Sombra had a really good year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted March 3, 2016 Author Share Posted March 3, 2016 I have been trying to remember when exactly I noticed how fucking good Cena was as a tag partner - specifically the way he works a ring apron. I am pretty sure it was more during the Shield feud - which obviously would not be this time period - but I do want to mention it again for those who haven't noticed it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I have been trying to remember when exactly I noticed how fucking good Cena was as a tag partner - specifically the way he works a ring apron. I am pretty sure it was more during the Shield feud - which obviously would not be this time period - but I do want to mention it again for those who haven't noticed it Has he had a lot of tag work in this time period? I absolutely agree with you. I was going to suggest the Cena/Ambrose vs Harper/Rusev match from Abu Dhabi which I loved, but that was in February 2015 so it's outside the period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tromatagon Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Way to help people build a case against Sombra buddy It's pretty cool that you can not only see who voted, but what order they voted in. I blame Web Conn's vote on Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I'm okay with either guy going over here. Cena IS a great tag worker. He's a very underrated Face-in-Peril and I love seeing him team with random guys and interacting with them. Also, most of his worst bullshit that he pulled out this year trying to keep up with the super indy workers would probably be hidden in a tag role. Alternatively, he also kicks out cutesy double teams sometimes, which aren't nearly as annoying as what he did in his singles matches this year. But Sombra is ALSO a great tag worker, and we have far, far more to go on this year, both in trios matches and in title matches. I love the way Los Ingobernables would work the start of a tag title match clean, as if they were going to follow the traditions of the form, and then start a beat down out of nowhere. I love the beatdowns in general, because they showed so much character. I loved Sombra in this trios: Where he was constantly stopping Rush from celebrating with Wagner. There's just so much character there and he was doing it all underneath a mask. He was putting on weekly performances that were worth watching even in the morass of CMLL's constant churn. So yes, Cena's an underrated tag worker in principle, but Sombra's an thoroughly engaging tag worker on a weekly basis and we have plenty of evidence to back that up in the time period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRGoldman Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Sombra's peaks this year were so high that I think in my head I thought he was sort of uneven, but rewatching stuff the past couple days, I think he just had a great year. John Cena deserves a play in round against the winner of Tanahashi/Elgin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 This was one of the easier votes. La Sombra. Cena had a couple awesome PWG tributes with Owens and then kept doing it and kept doing it and kept repeating spots and watered down and watered down... Nah. I didn't enjoy it at all. Plus, everyone Cena worked with came out looking worse than before they entered a program with him. Rusev being the prime example. Rusev was a major player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 This was one of the easier votes. La Sombra. Cena had a couple awesome PWG tributes with Owens and then kept doing it and kept doing it and kept repeating spots and watered down and watered down... Nah. I didn't enjoy it at all. Plus, everyone Cena worked with came out looking worse than before they entered a program with him. Rusev being the prime example. Rusev was a major player. I really don't understand how anyone can like the Cena/Owens series. The first match sure. But then they just kept repeating the same spots for the next 2 matches with diminishing returns to where I thought both of them looked worse coming out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I agree. The rematch was literally spot for spot the same match except the finish. People want to rant about some of the women rehearsing but what the hell was that? Cena and Owens have one awesome spectacle of a match and then say "Ok, our work is done here." Their matches were The Hangover II of wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyLaw Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 I could be completely wrong about this, but there was a nice wrinkle/potential story set up for the third rematch, but they completely ignored it. Owens, IIRC, never hit the pop up powerbomb in the second match, so it was actually protected. Of course, no one mentioned it, and it was just used as a near fall in the third fall, so it was all a waste, but at the time I thought they were going somewhere with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 The second one did a lot of building off the first, with Cena knowing Owens's spots and avoiding/countering them etc. The third was just Cena/Owens the Greatest Hits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Sandwich Carl Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Here is why I think the US Open Challenge was rad. WWE reserved the big bomb finisher kick out stuff for select main eventers at select main events. It wasn't an everyday match style. Cena took that and his overall "being John Cena"-ness and imported it onto unexpected people. Suddenly, the top guy is having hard fought battles with newcomers and skilled, but somewhat ignored vets (and Zack Ryder, but shit even he got to be more competitive than his spot should've allowed and he threw an impressive 450 that he has yet to do again) where bombs are thrown and finishers are kicked out like they're in a top match at Wrestlemania. I think those matches, in the short term as it turned out, helped a lot of people. Neville, Owens, Zayn, Cesaro and even Stardust briefly got bumped up by being able to not only be perceived as hanging with a guy on Cena's level, but by being part of a match style that is so closely associated to the tippy top guys. Sure, the WWE couldn't follow up properly on it, but that's on them. Cena's work was strong throughout. The beats of acting, his over acted shock and his anger and subtle dickishness towards referees when he didn't his way was great (even if some of the moves were sloppy) and maybe more significantly, it did the rare and important task of trying to up the profile of other people. Owens earned himself a promotion because of it. The Zayn match still gets brought up and will throughout his career. Cena might be Cesaro's best opponent, which is a big deal considering how good Cesaro is. So maybe the ultimate payoff was weak, but the US Open challenge was a success in a lot of ways. Now having said all that, vote Sombra, you clods. He's better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Yeah, those Cesaro matches were fucking incredible. I'm always pro-Cena though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Yeah, those Cesaro matches were fucking incredible. I'm always pro-Cena though. Did you like the Sombra vs Atlantis mask match? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 I'm well into the third fall and thinking these forty minutes would have been better spent reading Hellblazer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Yeah... I fully admit it's me, but actual lucha and I just don't click. I saw a thirty minute match that was sloppy, where they did very little that caught my interest at all, where nothing looked like it was really connecting at all, and even the ref was out of position a ton (and so many random cuts to showing the crowd or the entire building for no apparent reason, though I can't hold that against the match.) I don't watch lucha because I don't like it. I don't like it because I don't get it. I don't get it because I don't watch it. And on and on it goes. But I wasted 35 minutes on La Sombra vs Atlantis and saw nothing that makes me want to watch more of either guy in that setting. Which of course probably means I'll end up loving Sombra in NXT once they acclimate him to WWE style instead. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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