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John Cena

From the NAI Archive – January 7, 2016 – Thursday Trio – With Injuries Abound, Three Options for Booking Wrestlemania

From the NAI Archive – January 7, 2016 – Thursday Trio – With Injuries Abound, Three Options for Booking Wrestlemania

The news that John Cena was to undergo shoulder surgery (as of this writing, I believe he should have already completed the procedure) shocked the wrestling world yesterday, and we’ve spent the last 24 hours or so trying to absorb, analyze and appreciate the fallout.

The biggest issue, at least in a global WWE sense, is how Cena’s absence will affect Wrestlemania – No matter what the actual booking was going to be, John was to have a major role in the grandest stage of them all, and when you combine his injury with the others in the company. . . Well, let’s just say I imagine there’s some panic happening over there at Titan Tower.

Relax, WWE. I’m here to help.

From the NAI Archive – September 21, 2015 – #NOCTaughtMe – DC describes the lessons learned from Night of Champions

From the NAI Archive – September 21, 2015 – #NOCTaughtMe – DC describes the lessons learned from Night of Champions

Social media is a double edged sword. In fact, it’s more like a multi-sided sword, if that’s even possible. . . Can you have a sword that’s also an octagonal prism?

. . .

I shouldn’t write these columns on only 4 hours of sleep.

Last month I realized that I was spending so much time Tweeting, I wasn’t actually watching the wrestling on my WWE Network, and thus was born #SummerSlamTaughtMe, a series of handwritten notes that became a couple of columns and part of a podcast.

This month for Night of Champions, I decided to avoid social media during most of the matches, and once again took up my pen and yellow legal pad. However, as I watched WWENOC, I found myself discovering broader themes rather than just bad jokes and minor observations.

So, for #NOCTaughtMe, let’s do single lessons from each match, shall we?

From the NAI Archive – September 10, 2015 – The Rollins Roulette – 4 Ways NOC could play out

From the NAI Archive – September 10, 2015 – The Rollins Roulette – 4 Ways NOC could play out

In 10 days, WWE will bring us Night of Champions, the annual PPV where every title belt is on the line. As many of you know (I shan’t assume you’re all well versed in current-day storylines), that puts Seth Rollins in an interesting spot, being the current World Heavyweight AND United States champion. Mr. Rollins will be defending the US belt against John Cena and the World title against Sting.

Everybody with me? Good.

There are four possible outcomes stemming out of Night of Champions, assuming, of course, that all of the matches wind up in clean, straightforward decisions.

Stop laughing.

Based off of a question by @Cody_Burris, let’s chat about each outcome one at a time, discussing why it might happen, what it could mean, and how likely it might be.

From the NAI Archive – August 24, 2015 – DC’s Diaries – What #SummerSlamTaughtMe – Part 1

From the NAI Archive – August 24, 2015 – DC’s Diaries – What #SummerSlamTaughtMe – Part 1

If there was a word to describe Summer Slam, “Polarizing” might be a good one. A whole lot of people had a WHOLE LOT of strong opinions on the show. So much so, in fact, that I found myself so busy thinking about the opinions of others that it was hard for me to remember my own – The show got lost in the reaction.

So, to remedy that, I sat down with a pen and a notebook and decided to actually watch the show, jotting down my thoughts along the way. As tends to happen when I do something like that, the theme came along as I went, and since this is the Twitter-world, I gave it a hashtag.

What #SummerSlamTaughtMe

From the NAI Archive – July 21, 2015 – RAW Response- Promoting Positivity Edition

From the NAI Archive – July 21, 2015 – RAW Response- Promoting Positivity Edition

After spending the last 60 hours or so trying to sort through the IWC’s bi-polar responses to Battleground and RAW, I’ve realized once again that in wrestling, just like life, you can’t please everybody.

RAW was great, except it sucked. Battleground was awesome, until it was terrible. JBL is an awful announcer. . . .Well, I suppose that’s the general consensus – Hey! Something we can all agree on!

Time to dust all the old favorite. Let’s get to #PromotingPositivity, people!

From the NAI Archive – July 20, 2015 – Battleground Response – Why Time Matters

From the NAI Archive – July 20, 2015 – Battleground Response – Why Time Matters

Time was a funny and fickle thing. Sometimes there was never enough of it, and other times it stretched out endlessly. – J. Lynn.

If there was one topic that kept running through my head during and after last night’s Battleground, it was time, and not just because the ‘event’ ended 15 minutes “early”. To be honest, it didn’t end early, plenty of WWE events end well before 11 o’clock, this one just ended suddenly.

All of the problems I saw people having with the matches, with the results, with EVERYTHING have to do with time. So, let’s take some time today and try to sort things out.

You don’t live longer. It just seems longer.

From the NAI Archive – June 23, 2015 – RAW Response – Hey, I actually had time to watch the full show!

From the NAI Archive – June 23, 2015 – RAW Response – Hey, I actually had time to watch the full show!

This morning, like most recent Tuesdays, I was awake before the sun.

This morning, like most recent Tuesdays, I sat down to watch RAW.

This morning, UNlike most recent Tuesdays, I didn’t have to squeeze it in before work.

So for the first time in forever (You’re welcome to all those people now singing a song from Frozen), I watched 85-90% of RAW. Sorry, D-Jay, but even all this free time isn’t going to make me watch the Bellas vs. Naomi and Tamina.

Thus, I present to you NAIbors, a RAW response in just about its entirety.

From the NAI Archive – May 26, 2015 – RAW Response – Why is WWE “suddenly” good again?

A funny thing happened over the last few months. . .

Monday Night RAW, and WWE in general, became super enjoyable again.

No longer are we bogged down in #CancelWWENetwork drama. In fact, outside of a few people who seem to rarely, if ever, be happy with all-things wrestling, people are pretty upbeat about the product as a whole.

So, what happened? What has caused such a turnaround in viewer attitudes?

I know that just about all of you are going to say the same thing – “It’s HHH, he’s taking over and he’ll bring us to our own personal Xanadu of wrestling heaven!”

That may or may not be true – The fact is, none of us truly knows how much of the WWE product is being orchestrated by whom these days, so for today’s piece, we’re not going to focus on the behind-the-scenes parts.

Today, we’re going to look at a handful of on-screen reasons that I feel have boosted WWE’s appeal.

From the NAI Archive – May 19, 2015 – The Chief’s Brief’s – Payback and RAW Response

From the NAI Archive – May 19, 2015 – The Chief’s Brief’s – Payback and RAW Response

Welcome, welcome, one and all, as The Chief tries to be Brief about the state of WWE in our Post-Payback, pre-Elimination Chamber world. The last few days of wrestling will likely spark a number of articles on NAI (I hope you’re all prepping your Fan Friday work, NAIbors!), so rather than clog your timelines with multiple columns, let’s try to get through as much as possible in a (relatively) short amount of space.