The Silver Report: May 6-12

Border Wars this weekend and Over the Limit this coming weekend.  It is a busy week in wrestling.  Also WrestleMania 28 finally comes out on DVD here in Canada tomorrow so there will be no Silver Report for next week.  In the place of the Silver Report will be my review of WrestleMania 28 along with a quick preview for Over the Limit.  It has been a busy week so this week’s Silver Report will be a little shorter than usual.

Don’t Cross the Boss

With John Cena not at Raw this past week, John Laurinaitus focused his attention on putting the rest of the WWE roster on notice.  The GM of both Raw and Smackdown made it clear that whoever does not respect him and also makes fun of his voice will face severe consequences.  First, Big Show made fun of Laurinaitus’ voice and was humiliated in front of the entire WWE Universe by Eve.  Next was CM Punk, who Laurinaitus booked in a Handicap Match against Lord Tensai and Daniel Bryan in the main event.  Punk fought valiantly against the No.1 Contender to the WWE Championship and Laurinaitus’ hired wrecking ball, but ultimately came up short as he fell to Tensai’s claw.  In preparing to face Cena at Over the Limit, Laurinaitus has sent a message to the entire locker room.  Don’t cross him or face the consequences.  We will just have to see what happens tonight on Raw.

Heyman is Back, Lesnar Quits

Ever since Lesnar came back to the WWE, many fans have been anticipating the return of Brock’s longtime manager, Paul Heyman.  These fans finally found out as Paul Heyman made his surprise return to WWE last week to read a statement from his client, Brock Lesnar.  To sum things up, Brock Lesnar has “quit” the WWE.  In order to keep Lesnar off of WWE programming for a while and not use up all his dates, WWE has decided to go this route with the story.  I have no doubt that is building towards Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H at Summerslam, but how we get there is up in the air.  I do believe that Paul Heyman will play an integral part as he will be Brock’s voice while Lesnar is kept off of TV and PPV.

Everybody Wants a Shot at the Great White

On this past Raw, there was a tag match with Sheamus and Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio and Chris Jericho.  It was a heated contest that saw Jericho getting the pinfall victory over the World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus.  After the match, everything broke down Laurinaitus’ office as Jericho, Orton and Del Rio all were bickering over who deserved a shot at the World Title.  Laurinaitus solved the problem by making the World Title match at Over the Limit a Fatal 4 Way.  While feeling just thrown together just for the sake of it, this Fatal 4 Way match should be excited considering the talent in the match.

The Silver Report: April 29-May 5

One week removed from what has been considered the best WWE PPV since last year’s Money in the Bank.  Chicago seems to bring out the best in the WWE.  Every PPV should be in Chicago at this rate.  Last Sunday’s Extreme Rules was one eventful night that saw both CM Punk and Sheamus defend their titles in two highly praised matches and Cena nearly beat Brock Lesnar in a bloody confrontation.  While I was a little disappointed that Cena went over Lesnar, I am going to make sure to pick up Extreme Rules on DVD when it comes out to see this great PPV for myself.  The fallout from Extreme Rules dominated WWE programming this week as we move closer to Over the Limit, which is just two weeks away.

Johnny Cracks

Raw opened with one heated segment involving John Laurinaitus, Triple H and Brock Lesnar.  Triple H was at Raw to address Brock’s unreasonable terms that Laurinaitus agreed to the week before.  The COO of the WWE put his foot down and that did not satisfy Brock.  Brock and Triple H came to blows which ended when Lesnar hooked in the Kimura and broke Triple H’s arm.  Just like that after all of Laurinaitus’ hard work in building Lesnar to be the face of the WWE, Brock blew a gasket and seemingly got himself fired.  Left in a state of shock and panic, Laurinaitus turned his attention to John Cena as he would announce Cena’s opponent at Over the Limit at the end of the show.  John Cena came out to the ring in a sling as his arm was hurt during his match with Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules.  Immediately following that Laurinaitus came to the ring to announce Cena’s opponent.  At first everybody thought Lord Tensai would be Cena’s opponent because the wrestler formerly known as A-Train made his way to ring after Laurinaitus came to the ring.  WWE tricked us all as Laurinaitus hit Cena over the head with the microphone before announcing that he would face John Cena at Over the Limit.  While I know that this match will be far from a technical masterpiece, I have been waiting for somebody to finally get their hands on Laurinaitus since Cena hit Mr. People Power one of the stiffest clotheslines during his match with Punk at last years’ Money in the Bank PPV.  It will most likely be an overbooked mess, but I personally believe it will be a very entertaining overbooked mess.

CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, WWE Championship, Over the Limit, the Internet Has Exploded

If the title does not make the Internet Wrestling Community collectively mark out, I don’t know what will.  Many hardcore wrestling fans have been waiting to see CM Punk and Daniel Bryan face-off on WWE PPV ever since the WWE signed Bryan back in 2009.  While I personally would really love to see this match main event WrestleMania someday, WWE did the smart thing of putting this match on what is mostly considered a throwaway PPV in the minds of many wrestling fans including yours truly.  It gets wrestling fans that would usually skip Over the Limit to keep watching Raw to see the build and possibly order the PPV to see this one match.  We will have to see how WWE builds this match in the next two weeks, but CM Punk and Daniel Bryan have a long history from their time in ROH to their matches from earlier this year that WWE can pull material from to perfectly build this match as the main event of Over the Limit even in such a short time. 

A War Is Coming Across the Border

It has been a long time since I have mentioned anything about Ring of Honor on the Silver Report.  With how busy I was these last six months, I stopped watching ROH because I never really had much time to watch ROH on my computer.  About a month ago, I found out that Fox 29 (channel 28 on my TV) had ROH on Sunday nights at 11.  So I have gotten back into the swing of things with this great wrestling promotion just in time for their biggest iPPV of the year, Border Wars.  Next Saturday at the Ben Reeves Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ROH will bring one of their biggest cards of 2012.  Roderick Strong vs. Fit Finlay, The Briscoes vs. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team in a Fight Without Honor for the ROH Tag Titles, Lance Storm vs. Mike Bennett, Eddie Edwards vs. Rhino, Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole and Jay Lethal vs. Tommaso Ciampa fill out the incredible undercard.  The main event goes to possibly the most anticipated ROH World Championship Match of 2012 in Davey Richards vs. “Wrestling’s Worst Nightmare” Kevin Steen.  Being that this match is Kevin Steen’s only chance at the ROH Title, this match should be off the charts and see the Canadian Kevin Steen walking away with the ROH Title around his waist.  I am personally cheering for Kevin Steen because I can see ROH becoming a lot more interesting with Steen as World Champion.