I run down Penn Jillete's rant from his latest Podcast regarding Barrack Obama'a stance on Marijuana laws in the debut edition of the STATUS UPDATE Podcast Series. It's an incredible rant that everybody needs to see and share with the World. His message is far too strong to be ignored.

On the night of April 1st, 2012, The Rock defeated John Cena in the Main Event of WrestleMania 28, from Rock's hometown in Miami, Florida. The match was billed as "Once in a Lifetime" for a number of factors: Simply because THE ROCK was back; this being his first singles match since 2003; it being against Cena, the company's top guy for the last eight years, whom everybody wanted to see get his ass kicked, as well as Rock being the symbol of the WWF when Wrestling was "cool", even going as far as having Cena mention that very fact. It's not cool right now. And Cena is the symbol of the company. People wanted to see "their guy" beat up "todays [uncool] guy". Run-on sentences rule.

Another key point is that this match has been building for over a year now, with the match being officially signed the day after WrestleMania 27 LAST year. The long hype and build, I thought, would end up being a really good thing. And it was, don't get me wrong. But somehow, by February 2012, The Rock wasn't quite getting the HUGE, blow-the-roof-off reactions he was a year ago. Quite frankly, that's all WWE's fault and their lack of long-term thinking sometimes, which is the number one issue they've been having for a while now. It's well-known that creative usually has Raw done by the weekend, and during that weekend, he'll re-write a million things, which just leads to a cluster fuck for whatever Vince changed, because now whatever was booked originally doesn't make any sense, if it just so happened to be a program with strong long-term ramification's. Vince changing that ONE angle can ruin the future just like that.

That's not the ONLY reason that things like this happen, however. There are tons of factors; the main one is simply that Vince is Vince, and that's not going to change until Hunter winds up taking over, which I have to say that I'm actually looking forward to it, because I know that then there will be some real change. And I don't see how it could get any worse than this, especially considering that everything Hunter has been credited for recently has been tremendous. But I'll get to that in another article.

What I really want to get into is the April 2nd Raw angle that took place at the end of the show, featuring 18,000 fans in Miami not giving two shits what John Cena had to say, and the return of Brock Lesnar. The first angle was pretty hot, and drew one of the best ratings in quite a while. I only mention that because it's all they care about, and 4/9 Raw the next week took a dive. Anyway, on that show we see Johnny Ace so offhandedly announced that Brock Lesnar's first match back in the WWE in eight years is against John Cena, THIS MONTH, at the Extreme Rules Pay-Per-View. Of course Lauranitis doesn't mention ANY of those key points for this PPV to draw that I just did. I'm not saying that I should be running WWE, be the booker or whatever the fuck. I KNOW I can't handle that stress. These are just some simple things that I ask myself, because it seems like common sense to me. ANYWAY.... 

So Johnny introduces Brock Lesnar as his latest signing for the Raw "brand", or whatever.  John Cena gave him no time once Brock was about to speak, as he interrupted him and proceeded to slap the former UFC Champion in the face. HARD. Little side note: I was surprised that they did indeed mention not only his MMA run, but actually referenced UFC by name. I did not expect them to do that. Back on track. Lesnar does a double leg takedown, and blasts Cena with a STIFF right hook that left Cena with a bloody mouth, which made for a good visual. The entire locker room emptied, including Daniel Bryan, who did get more love from the crowd this week when they saw him on the screen. And this is during the BROCK FUCKING LESNAR/JOHN CENA BRAWL. So yeah Kevin Dunn or whoever the fuck thought the Miami thing was just an aberration, go fuck yourself.

The whole locker room is out there trying to break this brawl up, with several wrestlers, agents and the rest of the looney toon squad holding each man back in separate corners. They did the gimmick where one was able to break free for a second, and leap into the pit of people holding the other back, just to get a shot in; they both did that a few times. It was a good brawl, I liked it. The visual of the blood on Cena was really effective for me. You don't see blood in WWE too often anymore, which is a good thing. When everyone was getting color every week, it loses its power. When it happens every once and a while, you get a big 'OOOO and AWWWW' reaction because, at least with WWE, the fans have been un-desensitized to it. So it's special. Really simple.

Now to get back to my original deal here. As much as I enjoyed Brock's last two segments, I feel SO much more could have been done with it. For one, the way they announced the match was fucking stupid. It was announced as if this is going to be 'just another match'. Seriously? And you're that worried about falling buy rates, and hope that since Brock became a big PPV guy in UFC that this will translate back into WWE. In theory, it should. And this isn't the only reason, but it's the one of the many issues that has to do with this article as a whole, and it's that they haven't completely dropped the ball yet. There's still like two TV's to shoot before the match, so it's possible they could redeem themselves. But how in the world am I supposed to take Brock Lesnar seriously when he's aligned with Otunga and Johnny; two people that everyone looks at as geeky, loser, goofballs, WHICH IS FINE. I don't mind their act that much. BUT BROCK LESNAR SHOULD NOT BE WITH THEM. I just think their stigma is a detriment to the whole thing.

Another thing about Raw that they should have done, but didn't: last week (4/9), the actors from the new Three Stooges movie were the guest host's, or something. One of the actors, Will Sasso, happens to be a gigantic wrestling fan, and has done some segments with WWE before, mostly with Steve Austin due to his great impersonation of him, and his popularity of the sketch comedy show Mad TV. He even ended up getting physical in the ring a few times, taking some bumps and whatnot.

So it's time to do their segment, which you can watch by clicking the image image above on the right hand side. First of all, I do need to point out that the crowd didn't care, or like these guys being on the show at all. The actors who play Moe and Larry come out in full Stooge gimmick. Curly, however, is not there. Next thing? Hogan's 'Real American' theme started playing, and out comes Will Sasso doing a full-blown Hogan imitation with the bandanna, the red & yellow colors, etc. He does the typical Hogan promo, and did a great job with it. His impressions have always been pretty spot-on.

In the ring, Sasso's doing his Hogan shtick when Kane's music plays. He comes to the ring, as Moe and Larry bailed and left poor Curly all by his lonesome with this crazy lunatic. Kane then proceeds to choke slam Sasso for good measure. That is where they went wrong.

What should have been done -- especially considering the crowd hated The Stooges taking up their Wrestling time as it was -- is that Brock Lesnar should have been the one to come out and bear the shit out of these goofballs. And if Moe & Larry didn't want to get physical, Will Sasso would have gladly done it; I'm sure of it. But noooo, lets send one of the stalest and most boring guys in ALL of Wrestling, who nobody cares about anymore, Kane. Nothing against the dude. I've always been a fan, and have tons of respect for him. I also actually think he's a pretty decent worker, too; more than he's given credit for.

It has taken them just TWO WEEKS. TWO FUCKING WEEKS to already strip away from his luster and specialty. Going back to the beginning, they somehow made THE GODDAMN ROCK JUST ANOTHER GUY. Look what they did with Goldberg, and even Steiner to a certain degree. WWE isn't as bad as TNA with this, but with the way they book, it's inevitable he'll be 'just another dude'.

What I would do is have Brock just squash the shit out of a bunch of people for a while, including some bigger stars to establish TOTAL dominance, and that nobody can beat him, especially not John Cena. Cena is a wannabe, while Lesnar is 100% the REAL DEAL. Tease their singles match a little bit over a few episodes.  I wouldn't have minded if his Extreme Rules match was beating on a wimpy guy; just destroying him. This way, we still haven't seen him in a 'real', more competitive singles match in a loooong time, and it can still be a big deal for SummerSlam. 

At the 2012 WWE Royal Rumble from St. Louis, Sheamus tossed Chris Jericho over the top rope to win the Rumble and earn a shot at Daniel Bryan's World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania. This build for this match was good. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought the constant evolution of Danielson's character throughout that time frame was extremely entertaining. 

His "YES! YES! YES" gimmick has completely caught on fire. During WrestleMania weekend, everyone in Miami was saying it literally all over the place. The guy was one of the top 4-8 most over guys on the entire show, and the following night on Raw, which includes a list of people like THE ROCK, BROCK LESNAR, JOHN CENA, TRIPLE H, SHAWN MICHAELS AND THE UNDERTAKER.... he was just as over.

He's always coming out to the ring and preaching his vegan lifestyle, trying to shove it down the crowds throats, and they eat it up. He gets super heat every promo he cuts with his total arrogance, and they way he treated his "Girlfriend" AJ. Danielson would throw her in harms way to save himself, just being a total chickenshit. He was always getting thes fluke, out-of-nowhere wins after doing something illegal that the official couldn't see, or prevent.

Going into Mania, Sheamus vs. Danielson seems to be one of the matches the fans were really looking forward to, because everyone recognizes Danielson's talent, so they knew there would be a guaranteed good-great match. They were scheduled to open up the show. Sheamus came out to a mixed reaction, whereas Daniel was over the rover. Thousands of people chanting YES and tons of YES signs.

The bell sounds, but before the match could begin, Bryan called AJ to the ring apron for a good luck kiss. When he turned around, Sheamus charged at him with The Brogue Kick, and pinned him for the three count. Holy shit were people steamed about that. A lot of people felt ripped off, and I can see where they're coming from, considering it was WAS an advertised 'Main Event' World Title match. Then Bryan got pinned in 18 seconds, so they could break the old World Title changing hands record, set at WM24 with Kane & Chavo for the ECW title.

If this were a few years ago, and I still had the mindset I did then, I would have been joining everyone else on the "fuck this BS" bandwagon, but I've changed a lot as a fan. There came a time where I couldn't enjoy even watching it anymore, because I couldn't help but nitpick every little thing, and never seemed to have anything nice to say about the WWE product. I was a HUUUUGE ROH fan at the time, so they spoiled me big time. In January 2007, I made a resolution that I'm just going to watch Wrestling for the FUN of it, and with a much more open mind. I wouldn't even waste my time on things that sucked, because it wasn't worth caring about something I loved when there's nothing I can do to fix it. So I just focused on the positives. This is one of those situations.

When he lost in 18 seconds, I honestly didn't care at all. My reaction was just "holy shit, that was fast". Sure, I thought it kinda sucked that I didn't get to see him Wrestle, especially since I got even more excited for the match when I noticed allll of the YES signs, chants, etc. I was just disappointed, whereas some people let it hurt their enjoyment of the rest of the show. I wasn't gonna let them do that to me. AND HEY, the booking makes sense to a degree. Just pay attention to how he's been booked and it'll make sense why he lost.

This brings me to the following night on Raw, April 2nd, the post-WrestleMania edition. On that night, at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida were so bitter over the way Bryan was cheated the night before, so they hijacked the show with more YES chants, Daniel Bryan chants, and even a "SI! SI! SI" when Alberto Del Rio was cutting a promo. That man was more over than anyone else in that building on that night, and this show had the return of BROCK LESNAR, THE ROCK before he leaves again, JOHN CENA, etc.

At least the following night, everyone got their payback with the fans' vocal backlash. After all of this, they decided to make a new T-Shirt for him, with the "YES YES YES" on the front of it. This man who I've been watching for over eight years, first saw him live at a shitty building in Revere, MA where I got to see Jushin Liger wrestle Bryan Danielson, which was the first time I ever got see either one of them live. I'm positive these shirts are going to sell really well. Fuck man, I want one.