The WWE Discussion Thread

[Rozalia1]

12 hours ago, Dauersack said:

I feel reminded of the ultra boring face era of Super Cena and Mega Reigns, only that Bianca is even more ridiculously overpushed. I mean they let her beat the entire opposing Survival Series team by herself a while ago, they let her overcome 1vs3 despite one of the 3 being one of the four horsewomen, it is just really damn stupid at this point, even for a monster like Raquel it would be a bit much. Not saying that it is not also annoying with heels like Reigns at the moment, though he at least needs help from others regularly, and surprisingly enough he comes off as far less arrogant than Bianca, a face, despite intentionally going for an arrogant character.

 

For the division to not be completed dominated by the "horsewomen" they have to job to others to build them up and I'd say Bianca has certainly been a success story. The 1st since Alexa back when she was knocking women out with a punch as champion unless you count Asuka which I wouldn't as she was already built up and they didn't do much with it.

 

Roman as a super heel has held the title for years. Before him you had fellow super heel Lesnar. Lashley as a heel was also a super heel. For the women Charlotte, Sasha, Becky, Bayley have all been really strong heels. Usos give their opponents more stuff and actually do lose matches but they've also held the titles forever. So to me a super face isn't boring as it as far from the norm as it gets in wrestling for a good long while now. I'd really like it if WWE went back to its roots and became a babyface company again and dropped this southern heel domination nonsense.

 

13 hours ago, Dauersack said:

Perhaps he thinks that no matter how much they beat him down and make him look like a joke, he has the briefcase so he will be champion soon anyway. Obviously a stupid mentality but aside from "well he is young so we can stop treating him like a joke in 5 years and still have a lot of time" it is the only one I can come up with that makes at least some sense.

 

I've spoken out against that thinking here yeah, just stupid. As for the cash in... I get that other guys treated as jokes for a long time have successfully cashed in... but when Roman is holding the title? The chances of Roman losing his title like that is likely 0 and to cash in on whatever face finally dethrones Roman would also be heavily stupid... Theory has like 6 months to cash in. Roman is holding it until at least Wrestlemania and then if someone takes it off him they need to hold the title for a bit, beyond the timeframe Theory has. I do not like Theory's chances.

 

Speaking of taking the title off Roman. Concerning that Rollings won the US title as that might mean that a returning Cody will be going for that instead... I hope it ain't HHH trying to minimise Cody purposely and they did that as a just in case they get the Rock vs Roman match. So if Rock says yes then Cody has a ready made feud to go into for the US title. If Rock can't do it then they have him go for the WWE title instead. If so then I certainly hope they don't get the Rock match because I want a babyface beating Roman at a big show.

 

13 hours ago, Dauersack said:

Well I am not suggesting to go around and randomly beat up the women, but if a roided up gal like Ripley keeps kicking you in the balls or smashing you in the back every other week, then giving her a beating when she is caught red handed should be the norm. Hell after what she did to his wife, Edge would come off as a total pussy to not send her to the hospital, but thats exactly what Edge will be doing, nothing, until Beth returns and tries to do it herself.

If a small guy kept doing what they are doing, he would be flying into the barricade almost instantly. If we can't do that in a PG14, not even in a fight situation, if they still need to send the message that women are second class in this business, then don't let them physically interfere at all, because it just makes them look bad and it makes the ones who keep letting them get away with it even worse for not doing anything, and not bringing an untouchable citizen of their own to guarantee success. As you mentioned though, they have done it to Stephanie and Becky even during the PG era, so they do not rule it out categorically, which leads to me believing that it might indeed be the women themselves who don't want their characters to get some equal treatment.

 

As far as I know WWE has much more leeway on these things on PLEs and so can do it if they wish. I agree with you on how bad it is to have these women attacking guys with impunity as they do. It is like with those mixed tag matches where it is clear that if a guy hits the female opponent then it is an instant DQ, yet many of these matches always has a spot where a woman attacks the guy in front of the referee with no issue at all.

 

13 hours ago, Dauersack said:

A few months ago I would have agreed painting WWE as the evil and incapable machine that suppresses all creativity from the brilliant minds of people like Wyatt and Moxley, holding them back from being good. By now we actually got to witness what these people being unfiltered looks like with Moxley, and what Moxley did to himself and the business as a whole was more atrocious than anything WWE could have ever come up with. We still do not know which version comes back, or if they all come back, I just know that, for whatever reason, his last run produced nothing but downright terrible matches, mostly stupid segments, and it damaged everyone who came into contact with it. If the best thing about a gimmick are the entrances, then yeah I am not too excited about a return and I hope they just keep that guy away from any titles at least.

 

Moxley is the dumbest man in wrestling though so I don't think it is fair to compare Bray with him. I personally think that Bray really isn't to blame, not directly anyway, indirectly perhaps as he likely caused Vince to start wanting to book stupid spooky stuff on his shows. I remember that final deletion match Bray had with Hardy that Vince instructed Cole to apologise on air for what they were about to see as Vince thought it was absolutely rotten. At some point after that Vince stopped being so against that stuff and got involved himself in it which is what really got heat with Bray as he felt it was bad.

 

I think Bray is serviceable enough in the ring myself and the fact that he rarely actually wrestles (MJF in AEW is similar in that respect) does help make his matches a bit more special. He might be getting a faction with this Wyatt 6 stuff so they'll be the people wrestling in his place. There has also been talk that his brother is also going to make a return, be it as a Wyatt 6 or someone else, so that might be another body to wrestle for Bray.

[Dauersack]

15 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

For the division to not be completed dominated by the "horsewomen" they have to job to others to build them up and I'd say Bianca has certainly been a success story. The 1st since Alexa back when she was knocking women out with a punch as champion unless you count Asuka which I wouldn't as she was already built up and they didn't do much with it.

Generally, yes, though the horsewomen dominance is pretty much over at this point, has been for a while. Charlotte has been gone for a while, Sasha has been gone for a while, Bayley has been gone for quite a while, so it was just Becky owning or fighting for one of the belts recently. Now with Bayley being back and going for the same belt, Becky seems inactive again, so it is pretty much just one of the four actually doing anything at any given time. With one of the belts being centered around Rousey for the forseeable future and her likely keeping one of them, most likely Becky, busy in future, there are other valid choices to pass the belt to sometimes aside from Bianca. Rhea, Raquel, Alexa, any of the very promising newcomers, one of the MMA background badasses like Shayna or Sonya who are so wasted at the moment. Its also about how she acts and how she wins with Bianca, and against which odds, that rubs me the wrong way at times.

 

15 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

Roman as a super heel has held the title for years. Before him you had fellow super heel Lesnar. Lashley as a heel was also a super heel. For the women Charlotte, Sasha, Becky, Bayley have all been really strong heels. Usos give their opponents more stuff and actually do lose matches but they've also held the titles forever. So to me a super face isn't boring as it as far from the norm as it gets in wrestling for a good long while now. I'd really like it if WWE went back to its roots and became a babyface company again and dropped this southern heel domination nonsense.

The thing is that to me, most of them were entertaining, even the more boring ones were not terrible or unwatchable, even currently the thing I dislike the most about Reigns is him hogging both belts instead of just one. Super faces meanwhile used to draw more heat than any heel due to how bad it became with them during their top runs. Aside from Triple H in the mid 2000s I have a hard time coming up with a heel whos endless dominant streaks were as insufferable as Super Cena or Mega Reigns. There was also Oldberg as unstoppable face, who was basically the face version of Lesnar, just with worse matches that made everyone involved look worse, though I kinda get what you mean, I just don't really agree that the super face is a good response to the super heel.

 

15 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

I've spoken out against that thinking here yeah, just stupid. As for the cash in... I get that other guys treated as jokes for a long time have successfully cashed in... but when Roman is holding the title? The chances of Roman losing his title like that is likely 0 and to cash in on whatever face finally dethrones Roman would also be heavily stupid... Theory has like 6 months to cash in. Roman is holding it until at least Wrestlemania and then if someone takes it off him they need to hold the title for a bit, beyond the timeframe Theory has. I do not like Theory's chances.

True, ending the undefeated streak of Reigns via cash in would mean to lose the big pay off, though given how obsessed they are to protect him I can see it happening given that it is no shame to lose to a cash in. I think the most likely scenario is them actually building up someone to take the main belt, and then theory comes in and takes the secondary one, though given that this is WWE they may just let Reigns lose in Saudi Arabia, who knows. If they decide to make Theory lose his opportunity, then he is unlikely to get back to the top.

 

15 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

Speaking of taking the title off Roman. Concerning that Rollings won the US title as that might mean that a returning Cody will be going for that instead... I hope it ain't HHH trying to minimise Cody purposely and they did that as a just in case they get the Rock vs Roman match. So if Rock says yes then Cody has a ready made feud to go into for the US title. If Rock can't do it then they have him go for the WWE title instead. If so then I certainly hope they don't get the Rock match because I want a babyface beating Roman at a big show.

I do not know how long Cody will be out. Their obsesseion with this Rock vs Reigns match is annoying me though. It is a dream match on paper to some, but in practice it is a 50 year old man who hasn't wrestled a match in years, and wasn't a full timer in almost two decades, wrestling a part timer who is approaching 40 and who is no longer used to being the one to carry a match given that he mostly gets highly capable opponents who could carry almost anyone to a good match.

 

15 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

As far as I know WWE has much more leeway on these things on PLEs and so can do it if they wish. I agree with you on how bad it is to have these women attacking guys with impunity as they do. It is like with those mixed tag matches where it is clear that if a guy hits the female opponent then it is an instant DQ, yet many of these matches always has a spot where a woman attacks the guy in front of the referee with no issue at all.

If this all leads to some big moment, then I'd be fine with it, they definitely did not go easy on Nia Jax for long when she entered the Royal Rumble, but at this point I just see this being the norm, and that is a shame because the hated woman manager heel getting kicked in the head, or the liked woman manager face getting ambushed by a heel were some of the loudest and most effective pops.

 

As for Moxley and Bray, we obviously have no way of truly knowing who was at fault there and if letting Bray loose will lead to similar shit as it did with Moxley, it is just something I expect to happen. I would prefer to be wrong on this, I used to be hyped for the fiend upon his debut after all, even if I never cared much for this whole funhouse stuff. I liked Bray during his cultist days as well even though it never really went anywhere, he at least had decent matches back then, in his last run he had terrible matches and was all about a dumb gimmick that got worse every month. If he returns and is suddenly much better I wouldn't mind that at all, guess I am just a bit cynical after so many years with this company.

Edited October 13, 2022 by Dauersack

[Rozalia1]

 

Incredible. Diamond Mine Forever! 

 

Side note. What a beast of a man Damon Kemp has to be. Damn near killed Strong apparently. Please, no swerve that Strong is actually not injured and Kemp is his stooge. Kemp has developed his promos nicely and I'm loving the gimmick of him being an absolute scumbag. Attaching Strong back on him would do no good. Just let Strong be a face and mentor to the Creed brothers & Ivy (and Tatum too perhaps).

 

Some people think that Tony D is going to be Stacks' mystery opponent as apparently, thankfully, Tony D's injury isn't as bad as first thought. 

Cora and Roxanne going to Raw and Smackdown respectively is interesting. Cora is likely getting Rhea to face Roxanne... Roxanne Natalya? Has history with Cora. I'm guessing Cora interferes to give Rhea a victory (unless Edge or whoever finally gets some payback on Rhea) while Natalya jobs to Cora.

 

I'm surprised we didn't get weeks of Waller pretending to be blind. Dragunov has been impressing me with his intensity and actually seems to be able to cut a promo. 

 

7 hours ago, Dauersack said:

Generally, yes, though the horsewomen dominance is pretty much over at this point, has been for a while. Charlotte has been gone for a while, Sasha has been gone for a while, Bayley has been gone for quite a while, so it was just Becky owning or fighting for one of the belts recently. Now with Bayley being back and going for the same belt, Becky seems inactive again, so it is pretty much just one of the four actually doing anything at any given time. With one of the belts being centered around Rousey for the forseeable future and her likely keeping one of them, most likely Becky, busy in future, there are other valid choices to pass the belt to sometimes aside from Bianca. Rhea, Raquel, Alexa, any of the very promising newcomers, one of the MMA background badasses like Shayna or Sonya who are so wasted at the moment. Its also about how she acts and how she wins with Bianca, and against which odds, that rubs me the wrong way at times.

 

You're not wrong, but it should be said that the Horsewomen have only been less dominating because of other circumstances. Bayley got injured for a good amount of time and has always been the weakest booked of them on top of that. Sasha has had several clashes management even beyond the recent one. Charlotte has been given a huge amount of time off for no explained reason (the injury is kayfabe) which if I had to guess is because beyond having heat with certain fans for being massively overpushed, she has heat with all the women in the locker room (it says something when hardly miss popular herself Nia Jax was celebrated for giving Charlotte some smacks). Even Becky had that long period she was out with her pregnancy. 

 

Shayna might be doing something soon due to that interaction she had with Ronda some weeks back, either against Ronda or as Ronda's stooge. Sonya thankfully they've finally did something good and logical with and had her show up on NXT to help Mandy's Toxic Attraction. So we can hope that good stuff is coming their way.

 

7 hours ago, Dauersack said:

The thing is that to me, most of them were entertaining, even the more boring ones were not terrible or unwatchable, even currently the thing I dislike the most about Reigns is him hogging both belts instead of just one. Super faces meanwhile used to draw more heat than any heel due to how bad it became with them during their top runs. Aside from Triple H in the mid 2000s I have a hard time coming up with a heel whos endless dominant streaks were as insufferable as Super Cena or Mega Reigns. There was also Oldberg as unstoppable face, who was basically the face version of Lesnar, just with worse matches that made everyone involved look worse, though I kinda get what you mean, I just don't really agree that the super face is a good response to the super heel.

 

The Authority as a whole. Absolutely brutal television. WWE's ratings were halved by the time that was done with. I firmly believe and Bianca supports this as she hasn't had pushback, that if done right then a dominate top face is how you grow your business. Find a guy, Bron looks a natural fit, and just book him like he was Bruno.

 

8 hours ago, Dauersack said:

True, ending the undefeated streak of Reigns via cash in would mean to lose the big pay off, though given how obsessed they are to protect him I can see it happening given that it is no shame to lose to a cash in. I think the most likely scenario is them actually building up someone to take the main belt, and then theory comes in and takes the secondary one, though given that this is WWE they may just let Reigns lose in Saudi Arabia, who knows. If they decide to make Theory lose his opportunity, then he is unlikely to get back to the top.

 

I think whoever beats him can do so in a hard fought match, but Roman to give the full rub to someone should lose again and again to whoever beats him and get progressively more crushed in each match. Really sell whoever beats him as "the man".

 

8 hours ago, Dauersack said:

As for Moxley and Bray, we obviously have no way of truly knowing who was at fault there and if letting Bray loose will lead to similar shit as it did with Moxley, it is just something I expect to happen. I would prefer to be wrong on this, I used to be hyped for the fiend upon his debut after all, even if I never cared much for this whole funhouse stuff. I liked Bray during his cultist days as well even though it never really went anywhere, he at least had decent matches back then, in his last run he had terrible matches and was all about a dumb gimmick that got worse every month. If he returns and is suddenly much better I wouldn't mind that at all, guess I am just a bit cynical after so many years with this company.

 

We'll see with Bray as there is so much speculation around him. I've heard stuff like the Wyatt 6 being him having a stable of fellow cult leader heels like Joe Gacy, those former ROH guys, and whoever else. Bray Wyatt and his imitators + some goons with a certain style of gimmick like Lumis. 

[Infected Elite]

While WWE has gotten a bit better, Bray was my fave in WWE for quite some time. I will follow Bray story closely.

 

But unless he is beating Roman, keep them far apart until at least a year or more. Id say give Bray his big wins this time around.

Other than that. i won't comment in this thread. 

 

I knew the rabbit was Bray, we all did. I'm glad.

 

hope everyone is well!

 

take care.

 

[Rozalia1]

Certainly didn't expect Bray to cut that promo. As there has been talk of them signing Dutch of the Righteous who has done this type of gimmick before and is the same age and around the same height/weight of Bray, I assume it'll be a case of him in a mask messing with Bray... though where does the Wyatt 6 fit into that? Is Survivor series going to be Wyatt 6 vs The doppelganger and his minions? 12 spooky gimmicks in the ring at the same time?

 

On 15/10/2022 at 8:36 AM, Infected Elite said:

While WWE has gotten a bit better, Bray was my fave in WWE for quite some time. I will follow Bray story closely.

 

But unless he is beating Roman, keep them far apart until at least a year or more. Id say give Bray his big wins this time around.

Other than that. i won't comment in this thread. 

 

I knew the rabbit was Bray, we all did. I'm glad.

 

hope everyone is well!

 

take care.

 

 

I don't think there is any danger of Bray vs Roman for a long time. It looks like they're going to quarantine Bray in his own big feud with whoever for the next 6 months or whatever as these sort of feuds don't get blown off in a month.

[Infected Elite]

 

so good. Bray is the best on the mic in WWE.

[Rozalia1]

Crown Jewel

 

Honestly, while these Saudi events didn't start great from what I remember they have improved heavily to the point that they honestly tend to be my favourite events. Crowd is hot. You get non-standard match ups often enough. The match quality is always top notch too. On a side note while the women not being able to show skin thing is obviously bad in the sense that such a restriction shouldn't exist, and it was gotten around horribly in the first match they did years back with the T-shirts over generic long tights, women since then have been wearing very nice gear in their matches. To me having non-standard gear like that makes the women's matches on these shows that bit more special.

 

Everything was great on the show but I had two stand outs. First off while a low bar I know, what a match Omos had. The trash talking while he beats on you element added to him nicely, he had good gear, and him overpowering even a man mountain like Strowman was a heck of a visual. Sadly for him, him being a giant is usually cool but it does give you a crippling weakness to slams so one good slam was all that was needed to take him out. Second was Logan Paul again. The height he gets on stuff is great and he did perhaps the best Buckshot I've seen. I loved that Roman, who like fellow invincible heel Lesnar is underrated on his selling, sold the "lucky shot" throughout the rest of the match and into the post match.

 

I'll also say this about the Bray stuff. He is a great promo yes and I enjoy them, but him possibly feuding with himself just hangs above it all like a dark cloud. They need to make clear soon that Uncle Howdy is Bo or whoever else messing with Bray. On this promo I did like that he basically explained the Fiend and why he was so invincible, making some sense out of it and not just being "well because of spooky magic".

[Dauersack]

Ongoing things of interest and how its going

 

Main championships. They actually made Roman Reigns have a mega competetive match against a freaking youtube celebrity, Reigns even required help from his bloodline goons to barely make it out alive, can't believe this shit. I am tired of the bloodline bs at this point, the only thing keeping that somewhat interesting was Zayn, but even that dynamic has not changed for a while. Same shit for many months now, wake me when Reigns gets injured, sick or finally gets dethroned, same goes for the Usos and their run.

 

Secondary championships. Doing fine right now, much better than the big ones. Walter and Rollins are work horses who can have a good match with just about anyone, plenty of action for the belts and while not much is happening in terms of storylines, the matches themselves are sufficient for these two belts, especially the IC belt.

 

Womens championships. Rousey seems on path to create an mma stable, already tempting Baszler, Deville would not be hard to recruit either and boom, already got a decent stable together. Raw womens title is the same crap still, their Crown Jewel match was downright comical, and not intentionally so. Not all that much to say, same rivalry for a while and they fed new old Nikki to Super Bianca right away, making her return and repackaging pretty much pointless and not worth caring about. The less is said about the womens tag titles the better, playing hot potatoe with it seems like the last desperate attempt to make them feel relevant, best to just throw them in the trash and be done with it like they did with the 24/7 belt.

 

Brock Lesnar vs Lashley. I hate what they did here. This was a dream match people had since 2005, and it underperformed for the second time now. Obviously they only wanted to get to 1:1 in order to have an excuse for a third match. They worked in an early injury angle, generally underwhelming delivery, and Lesnar won this match in a really dumb and indecisive way, which also just happened to be incredibly unlike him. Saudi Arabia events seem cursed, at least it was not Oldberg vs Eldertaker levels of disappointment for a dream match, hope they go all in on the third match.

 

Judgement Day. If there ever was a golden opportunity to get nothing but cheers for a man hitting a woman, especially one who asked for it for months, it would have been in medieval Saudi Arabia. Instead we got just another unpunished Ripley interference leading to another win through her. It was said out loud on Raw this week that no man can hit Rhea, they openly admit to this ridiculous double standard and it makes almost everyone on the show look shitty.

Rhea looks bad because she only dares to sneak attack and go for people who are banned from fighting back, making her look like a weak coward despite her massive size, every face looks bad for allowing himself to get attacked endlessly without ever fighting back, every heel (except Karrion Kross who actually abuses this loophole) looks bad for not hiring someone officially invincible and unbannable like Rhea to win all of their matches.

They brought someone in to even the odds and actually hit Rhea in the face though, fucking finally, Rhea is too good of a worker to waste her physical best years playing cowardly manager ♥. I have given up any hope that they will go anywhere with her and Dominiks weird dynamic, it has become obvious that they have no interest in doing anything good with Judgement Day, they basically replaced Edge, a believable leader, with little Finn Balor who now tries to act the part, gotta readjust expectations. I am already satisfied now if they just include Rhea in the action properly, hopefully getting rid of this group soon so that Dominik and Rhea may return to singles competition instead of wasting their best years in a group that is not going anywhere anyway.

 

Omos vs Braun. If you are a giant who sucks in the ring, which Omos is, then there is only two types of wrestlers who can get a decent match out of you. One are the midgets who just endlessly bounce off the giant, and the other are the roided guys who are strong enough to actually move the giant around and look believable enough to have something resembling a competetive match. Strowman is the latter, and I felt that the match still kinda sucked by normal standards, everything from the lazy build up to the match itself, which ended with a normal slam, every giants weakness. It was better than the usual Omos match though, by a lot, but obviously it would have been worse without the undeniable freakshow appeal of the clash. WWEs problem is that Strowman is himself a massive beast of a man, the only one in the company who can do that part for Omos, as even someone like Lesnar will probably look too puny next to Omos, I know Lashley did, so who knows what they want to do with him long term.

 

Austin Theory. His push is dead, his career buried beneath the building for the time being. How would they tackle Reigns hogging both belts with the clock ticking for Theories MIB contract? We saw it on Raw, badly, atrociously even. For the first time the belt was not used on the big title, but a second class title instead, the US title. I am supposed to believe someone like Austin Theory would settle for something less than the big belt? And then of course they make him lose, because losing the MIB cash in match did wonders for the likes of Damien Sandow, so losing it for a lesser title must obviously be even better, especially after several failed cash in attempts that ended before the bell even rang. Of course they could give him that thing back on a technicality of it only being allowed to be used on big belts or some shit, but even if they did that, which I doubt they want to, the damage is done, Theory is a joke, the man is having matches against Sheldon Benjamin and lost to nobodies like Gargano, no way out of that hole any time soon.

 

Baron Corbin. JBL makes him watchable, hard for me to say but for the first time in forever I am somewhat interested in what the guy does, not even sure why, he has not changed, maybe seeing JBL makes me feel all nostalgic for better days who knows.

 

Wyatt. Nope, not going to continue watching this garbage. If they want to pay the guy millions for him to talk to himself and video recordings of himself in ever dumber looking costumes, then so be it, their money their choice, I choose not to watch it anymore for my own sanity. Probably for the best that they let him just talk though, Fiend matches were rancid garbage, just imagine him with years of ring rust added to it.

 

Mcintyre vs Kross. I like Drew, I don't care much for the other guy, yet, so the rivalry falls a bit flat with me. Match was alright even if a bad choice of stipulation, usual cage match nonsense to be sure but other than that a solid performance, despite Drew supposedly being really sick at the time. I personally would prefer Drew to have a higher caliber rivalry than this, but I am not mad about it, who knows maybe the shallow personality new guy with the invincible blonde enforcer will grow on me at some point, his in ring work is good enough for it already.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Dauersack

[Rozalia1]

Well, I was more than fair in giving HHH several chances and after that criminal act he carried out on RAW he is out of chances. I don't think I've ever been angrier at WWE than with this. At least with Vince I knew malice wasn't involved. This is pure malice from HHH on a young guy who has done nothing to him and doesn't deserve to be punished all so HHH can flex and send a message to people that he is in control and "his guys" are going to dominate. I very much hope that next week Theory gets the briefcase back (he was attacked during his match) and this was just an angle and they're not really burying Theory next level underground as they seem to be with this. I'll be happy to give HHH one final bonus chance if he just does the right thing.

 

I'm now even more thankful for NXT 2.0 having existed and having given us all that great talent that will be the next generation of stars, unless HHH is that much of an arsehole to even bury the likes of Bron underground just because he can. I worry for the generation after them however as HHH seems to be pure poison. He loves himself small old Indy guys and seems to have zero eye for star power. Oh and once again, I am very thankful for Tony Khan getting himself such a bloated roster and signing so many guys like Adam Cole to lengthy contracts. Please Tony, keep signing all those nobodies to contracts so HHH can't get them.

 

11 hours ago, Dauersack said:

Omos vs Braun. If you are a giant who sucks in the ring, which Omos is, then there is only two types of wrestlers who can get a decent match out of you. One are the midgets who just endlessly bounce off the giant, and the other are the roided guys who are strong enough to actually move the giant around and look believable enough to have something resembling a competetive match. Strowman is the latter, and I felt that the match still kinda sucked by normal standards, everything from the lazy build up to the match itself, which ended with a normal slam, every giants weakness. It was better than the usual Omos match though, by a lot, but obviously it would have been worse without the undeniable freakshow appeal of the clash. WWEs problem is that Strowman is himself a massive beast of a man, the only one in the company who can do that part for Omos, as even someone like Lesnar will probably look too puny next to Omos, I know Lashley did, so who knows what they want to do with him long term.

 

Austin Theory. His push is dead, his career buried beneath the building for the time being. How would they tackle Reigns hogging both belts with the clock ticking for Theories MIB contract? We saw it on Raw, badly, atrociously even. For the first time the belt was not used on the big title, but a second class title instead, the US title. I am supposed to believe someone like Austin Theory would settle for something less than the big belt? And then of course they make him lose, because losing the MIB cash in match did wonders for the likes of Damien Sandow, so losing it for a lesser title must obviously be even better, especially after several failed cash in attempts that ended before the bell even rang. Of course they could give him that thing back on a technicality of it only being allowed to be used on big belts or some shit, but even if they did that, which I doubt they want to, the damage is done, Theory is a joke, the man is having matches against Sheldon Benjamin and lost to nobodies like Gargano, no way out of that hole any time soon.

 

Baron Corbin. JBL makes him watchable, hard for me to say but for the first time in forever I am somewhat interested in what the guy does, not even sure why, he has not changed, maybe seeing JBL makes me feel all nostalgic for better days who knows.

 

I think you could make a series out of Omos and Strowman. It is also a bit perverse I know, but I personally would very much enjoy seeing them as a 800lbs face tag team afterwards. Would be fun to see these two giant men just terrorising the Bloodline and having them running scared for once.

 

Straight up the worse cash in ever. Sandow lost to a 1 armed Cena yes, but it was still Super Cena, it was for a World title, and Sandow was very much a midcarder who obviously wasn't ever going to be a possible top face/heel. I do wonder what HHH will do next. I imagine he won't fire him but some weekly humiliation, perhaps making Theory Gargano's comedy jobber goof again, is likely what'll be next. 

 

JBL is incredible on the mic and it'd be nice for him to get a stable. Maybe they can fill it up with some Vince guys and hopefully not have them be buried underground... which is unlikely admittedly. 

[Dauersack]

2 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

I think you could make a series out of Omos and Strowman. It is also a bit perverse I know, but I personally would very much enjoy seeing them as a 800lbs face tag team afterwards. Would be fun to see these two giant men just terrorising the Bloodline and having them running scared for once.

Perhaps they will make it a series, after Braun destroyed Omos manager it may be personal enough for that, they also dragged the whole Omos vs Lashley thing out pretty long. The problem with them being a tag team is obvious when you look at the team that was closest in size, Big Show and Kane. One guy always has to play the guy who gets beat up so that he can do the hot tag, WWE is pretty lazy in that regard, they just demand it for tag teams. Kane used to do that part in the team with Big Show for most of the time, and given that he was quite big it already looked weird given his usual single matches dominance, despite there being guys like Snitsky or Viscera big enough to somewhat believably do that to Kane by themselves, or guys who look big enough together to manage it.

Now the "small" guy would not be the 320lbs Kane, but the 385lbs Strowman, in an era of puny guys being more common than big guys. Just imagine the sight of Strowman having to lay down and sell a beating from the comparatively tiny Usos for 5 minutes before hot tagging in Slowmos, might work to some extend but boy would it be a weird sight. Terrorizing the bloodline is something either Strowman or Omos could do solo, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon, can't ever make them look weak unless it is against Youtubers.

 

2 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

Straight up the worse cash in ever. Sandow lost to a 1 armed Cena yes, but it was still Super Cena, it was for a World title, and Sandow was very much a midcarder who obviously wasn't ever going to be a possible top face/heel. I do wonder what HHH will do next. I imagine he won't fire him but some weekly humiliation, perhaps making Theory Gargano's comedy jobber goof again, is likely what'll be next.

I just can't give this company the benefit of the doubt anymore when it comes to them having a long term plan with something like this, especially not if the humiliation is ongoing, which it was, and so incredibly severe, which is definitely was. Whatever they come up with is unlikely to get Theory out of that hole they buried him in, which is a damn shame.

2 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

JBL is incredible on the mic and it'd be nice for him to get a stable. Maybe they can fill it up with some Vince guys and hopefully not have them be buried underground... which is unlikely admittedly. 

The one problem I see with this is that JBL never really got anyone over with his Cabinet stable, aside from himself. Unlike a stable like Evolution that got every member over, neither Jordan nor the Bashams went anywhere with that and flundered afterwards. Aside from that I would obviously be into seeing that, even if I have a hard time coming up with more members for that group.

[Rozalia1]

12 hours ago, Dauersack said:

Perhaps they will make it a series, after Braun destroyed Omos manager it may be personal enough for that, they also dragged the whole Omos vs Lashley thing out pretty long. The problem with them being a tag team is obvious when you look at the team that was closest in size, Big Show and Kane. One guy always has to play the guy who gets beat up so that he can do the hot tag, WWE is pretty lazy in that regard, they just demand it for tag teams. Kane used to do that part in the team with Big Show for most of the time, and given that he was quite big it already looked weird given his usual single matches dominance, despite there being guys like Snitsky or Viscera big enough to somewhat believably do that to Kane by themselves, or guys who look big enough together to manage it.

Now the "small" guy would not be the 320lbs Kane, but the 385lbs Strowman, in an era of puny guys being more common than big guys. Just imagine the sight of Strowman having to lay down and sell a beating from the comparatively tiny Usos for 5 minutes before hot tagging in Slowmos, might work to some extend but boy would it be a weird sight. Terrorizing the bloodline is something either Strowman or Omos could do solo, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon, can't ever make them look weak unless it is against Youtubers.

 

I just can't give this company the benefit of the doubt anymore when it comes to them having a long term plan with something like this, especially not if the humiliation is ongoing, which it was, and so incredibly severe, which is definitely was. Whatever they come up with is unlikely to get Theory out of that hole they buried him in, which is a damn shame.

The one problem I see with this is that JBL never really got anyone over with his Cabinet stable, aside from himself. Unlike a stable like Evolution that got every member over, neither Jordan nor the Bashams went anywhere with that and flundered afterwards. Aside from that I would obviously be into seeing that, even if I have a hard time coming up with more members for that group.

 

If they do it that way then yeah it will be off, but with the new management there is always the possibility that it'd be different. HHH is a known NWA/Territories mark (which makes sense unlike being an Indy mark) and that had the Road Warriors, Skyscrapers, so forth, which were big men teams that'd just smash people. WWE doesn't really have disruptive fans anymore also (they're all at AEW where they accept anything and everything happily) so it'd get the right reaction.

 

Austin Theory. Elias. Madcap Moss. All guys that HHH didn't really care much for but Vince saw something in. On a side note that I don't know if you noticed. There was a backstage segment on one of the shows where they came across Gargano and JBL chastised him and told him he should show respect to the Miz. It is a hell of a detail if you know/remember the history between them as JBL was one of the guys who hazed Miz, though people tend to blame him too much as he only verbally mocked the Miz and it was Benoit who was the real bad arsehole. Miz ain't really a guy who'd fit in a JBL group but I like the fact that he tied up that little story by now respecting the Miz for surviving WWE and not getting all whiny like so many of the Indy guys do.

 

As for the Cabinet... from memory I never felt they were there to get over, simply to be bodies to allow JBL to win dirty. WWE chewed through a lot of OVW guys in that period and showed little care for the majority of them. The situation is also different as JBL is no longer an active competitor so guys in his stable aren't going to be there to get beat in his place.

[sk_lp_him]

Theory losing the cash-in was the correct choice and I fully support it. He was a dork under Vince's regime too and shouldn't even been given that victory. Plus the briefcase is just a lazy booking crutch that only a few have benefited after a successful cash-in - Edge, Punk, Rollins. The women mitb is even worse with winners like Liv Morgan and Nikki ASH who had terrible championship reigns.

[Rozalia1]

2 hours ago, sk_lp_him said:

Theory losing the cash-in was the correct choice and I fully support it. He was a dork under Vince's regime too and shouldn't even been given that victory. Plus the briefcase is just a lazy booking crutch that only a few have benefited after a successful cash-in - Edge, Punk, Rollins. The women mitb is even worse with winners like Liv Morgan and Nikki ASH who had terrible championship reigns.

 

Honestly with this cash in being as low as it gets they really should just retire the thing I agree. HHH loves long heel title reigns, something counter to classic WWE, due to loving southern wrestling so clearly the long dominate heel title reigns will continue which renders the MITB worthless.

 

I disagree on Liv Morgan being worse than this. She got to beat Ronda twice out of it and by the time she lost the title I think she had the most straight wins in the year (Roman never loses but he rarely wrestles). Nikki... well yeah, she was a joke but at least she got to win the title and even successfully defended it against Charlotte from what I remember even if it was a fluke win.

[RT_THE_KING_05]

Austin Theory's Cash-In made him look so weak. He cashed in on a mid card title and lost to a weak and beaten up Seth Rollins. They should of just had him cash in on Roman Reigns because he would of not looked weak losing to Roman Reigns because of how dominant he has been. I just hope in the future something happens with Theory.

[Infected Elite]

On 09/11/2022 at 3:42 PM, RT_THE_KING_05 said:

Austin Theory's Cash-In made him look so weak. He cashed in on a mid card title and lost to a weak and beaten up Seth Rollins. They should of just had him cash in on Roman Reigns because he would of not looked weak losing to Roman Reigns because of how dominant he has been. I just hope in the future something happens with Theory.

HHH isnt too find of him for some reason. Also HHH is obsessed with Kross and yet his crowd reactions now are pretty mid. 

Theory i could see as a big future talent but who knows. If HHH ends up turning him super heel or something and building him up for 2 years maybe. Otherwise who knows. I could see it being a weird case of MITB is for a WORLD title shot scenario playing out. But yeah I had hope for Theory. They need to make MITB a mania only match again. Imagine, win MITB on night 1 and declare cash in for Night 2. Suddenly have another main event.

 

Usos retain against New Day in an absolute classic again. Figured New Day would win and keep their historic reign in tact but nope. Not sure who, if any team other than New Day can even beat Usos... But i guess when you get multiple DUIs, the company will push you to the top of a division.

 

[Rozalia1]

19 hours ago, Infected Elite said:

HHH isnt too find of him for some reason. Also HHH is obsessed with Kross and yet his crowd reactions now are pretty mid. 

Theory i could see as a big future talent but who knows. If HHH ends up turning him super heel or something and building him up for 2 years maybe. Otherwise who knows. I could see it being a weird case of MITB is for a WORLD title shot scenario playing out. But yeah I had hope for Theory. They need to make MITB a mania only match again. Imagine, win MITB on night 1 and declare cash in for Night 2. Suddenly have another main event.

 

Usos retain against New Day in an absolute classic again. Figured New Day would win and keep their historic reign in tact but nope. Not sure who, if any team other than New Day can even beat Usos... But i guess when you get multiple DUIs, the company will push you to the top of a division.

 

 

Theory is an extremely talented heel but at this point it might be best to retire Theory as a heel for a time and see if he can be a face. Theory often gets called a possible next Randy Orton, but John Cena also often comes up. They did, granted while Vince was in control, tease a match with Cena. As for Kross... I don't think the guy has ever really been over across his whole career. He is obviously massively over with HHH who sees himself in Kross, but that itself might work against Kross as it is very transparent to people that he is a vanity project of HHH.

 

No current team on the main roster looks like they'd be able to. NXT teams as much as I like them wouldn't be able to (can you imagine say Pretty Deadly beating the Usos?). In these sort of circumstances they usually get out of it by teaming up two main eventers to do the job. I'd love Strowman and Omos teaming up for the hilariousness of it all as I've said, but the best bit of business might be to team Bron up with someone and have him do it if they're not going to book him instantly against Roman. Bron and Carmello (heel yes, but one always looking to prove himself) as a tag team would be a nice thing for them as you'd instantly tell those unaware by this point that these two kids are going to be a big deal. I remember when Black and Ricochet came up that was a spot they got where they were randomly a tag team and winning pretty consistently even if they could never win tag belts.

 

Speaking of NXT. Been watching and enjoying it, just haven't been making the posts I often do. Shawn Michaels, booker of the year, had NXT UK thrown on him by HHH and has masterfully managed to handle it unlike Tony Khan who has been wrecking his own shows due to having to feature ROH at the same time. Additionally while NXT had to rebrand away from 2.0, the spirit of 2.0 appears to still (thankfully) be very much alive. All of this good stuff has been very much reflected in the ratings too. NXT only dropped a very tiny amount in total viewers and had their key demo go up on election day which is a massive result. NXT fans skew older as we know too and old people tend to be who drop out to view important news related stuff but that simply didn't happen here because clearly NXT has become must watch TV for them.

[Rozalia1]

RAW

 

Theory cut a promo that made sense but really small timed himself as he essentially said that Roman is invincible and even with the MITB he'd not be able to beat Roman. He then lost his match for kicking too much arse and did a post match attack on Rollings at the end of the show. Promising I suppose but I will wait and see what they do going forward because I've seen too many ruined heels get aggressive and then lose even harder. Remember Sandow? Lost his MITB shot and then got aggressive and became even more of a loser losing endlessly until he got a comedy gimmick where he technically started winning matches again, but they largely consisted of the Miz winning handicap matches.

 

Side note. Might Theory be getting a name change with all of this? The Theory part of his name has been explained by Theory himself (off camera) as being something he chose as he was unproven. If they do then there is one natural change. Fury. Another part of the story behind his name was that he initially had Austin Fury after Bryan Fury from Tekken, but thought it better to change it to something that sounded similar. Would be nice promotion for another Saudi match for Tyson Fury also as you'd be able to bill it as Fury vs Fury and the two did have the interaction of Tyson knocking him out when he tried to cash in the MITB.

NXT

 

I have to say that Von Wagner has been coming along I think. He has gotten better in the ring and his promos I think are working. He has a speech problem but unlike some others (Hager for example) where it holds them back, Wagner makes it work for him I think. Could well become a Sid, a big guy who has this weird charisma to him. The striking look helps too of course.

Wasn't going to be the guy to beat Bron but he did get to dominate much of the match.

 

Zoey died out there with her promo as while it had good points it went on way too long. NXT truly is on the cutting edge though. Zoey turning on Nikita because she hates that the fans masturbate to Nikita. She is out there trying to be the best and no one cares, Nikita shakes her behind and everyone is like "wow, she is going to be a big deal no doubt about it".

 

Paxley is now a luchador apparently as taking off her mask causes her to cover up her face and get pinned instantly. Weird because she was shown without the mask backstage so you would assume that she was all good and then she is out there working with it and concerned with her bare face getting hit. As I've said previously, hopefully once the face is all good she keeps wearing it as it makes her stand out.

 

A dominant heel champion has their stooges taken out by a Scottish warrior before their big match to even it up and make it 1 vs 1. During the match when it looks like the Scot is going to win a until now unseen person shows up and costs them the match. Mandy Rose getting that Roman Reigns finish. Toxic Queen still rules the division. What name will Alba change to in shame now that Mandy has dispatched her again?

 

Iron Survivor announced. Basically the Championship Scramble match they did the one time in 2008 + Iron man match point counting + a penalty box. I'm... interested. The problem with the Championship Scramble was that until the end nothing matters pretty much hence why they never did it again as people didn't like it (for whatever reason War Games doesn't get this hate). With this match you have the opposite situation where you'd actually want to start the match as it means you'll have more time to get points. Another interesting aspect to the match is that unlike other multiman matches in wrestling which are instantly no DQ (they shouldn't automatically be) this one actually has DQs.

[jackmadrox]

MY GOD THIS GUY JUST WON'T GO AWAY

Edited December 14, 2022 by jackmadrox

[SelectiveGamer]

Yeah that needs to not happen. Understatement personified but there's no other way to put for me really without using language like in that video I guess lol Is it perfect? Of course not. But things take time. It's going to take longer than 6 months (or however long HHH has been in charge at this point) for things to truly 'change'

 

Also... Mandy Rose has been released by WWE due to possibly explicit photos she put for a subscription fee on something called FanTime. I'm not about to look this up to see what it actually is.

Whether you think WWE are being hypocrites again since they let people have their Twitch channels back (not sure about Cameo though) or think Rose is to blame for not letting the company know about what she was doing is up to you.

[Infected Elite]

Wrestlers are independent contractors. They should be allowed to do whatever outside the business. 

 

Unfortunately UUDD is owned by WWE now, but Amanda posing i dont think is a problem. But using the Mandy Rose name as part of it is what i think they're mad about. 

 

WWE is dumb for this. But hopefully Vince never comes back either.

[SelectiveGamer]

3 hours ago, Infected Elite said:

Wrestlers are independent contractors. They should be allowed to do whatever outside the business. 

 

Unfortunately UUDD is owned by WWE now, but Amanda posing i dont think is a problem. But using the Mandy Rose name as part of it is what i think they're mad about. 

 

WWE is dumb for this. But hopefully Vince never comes back either.

 

I never said I was blaming Mandy. All I'm really saying is that there are always going to be two sides to every story and we need more information as there isn't enough available right now. But I'm sure she'll be fine as AEW will be more than happy to take her (and this isn't meant as a shot either just so you know)

 

But yeah it's hypocritical like I said. I still feel like we need more information though.

[Infected Elite]

7 minutes ago, SelectiveGamer said:

 

I never said I was blaming Mandy. All I'm really saying is that there are always going to be two sides to every story and we need more information as there isn't enough available right now. But I'm sure she'll be fine as AEW will be more than happy to take her (and this isn't meant as a shot either just so you know)

 

But yeah it's hypocritical like I said. I still feel like we need more information though.

 

i unno. If im dating someone and she wants to start an only fans, go for it. Idc what gets shown. 

 

They'll rehire Mandy eventually i am sure. Hopefully they fire that junkie Riddle though. Hell. fire Roman because he's a risk with cancer. Why allow that? ah but Mandy posted some nude video and pics. Cant have that.

[RoastedPeanut]

Well damn and here I was hoping Mandy dropping the title was a sign Toxic Attraction were making the jump from NXT. Maybe Cora Jade can slot into Toxic Attraction and come after Roxanne Perez again now that she has the title. Ehhh I don't know

[Infected Elite]

4 hours ago, RoastedPeanut said:

Well damn and here I was hoping Mandy dropping the title was a sign Toxic Attraction were making the jump from NXT. Maybe Cora Jade can slot into Toxic Attraction and come after Roxanne Perez again now that she has the title. Ehhh I don't know

 

Mandy can be brought back after some time apparently. But look at all these rehires WWE (HHH) shouldn't have done....

- Hit Row (fuckin job squad and garbage fat ass rapper)

- Braun Strowman (boring)

- Dexter Lumis (meh)

 

to an extent, Karrion Kross. Had he been booked better instead of stupid 50/50 booking.... 

 

Also fire Mandy for nudes, but make Junkie Riddle go to rehab, Usos have numerous DUIs, etc. but nudes get you canned. Right. Guess the world is going way too soft. Surprised Playboy still exists and hasnt been a target of some stupid group like everything else is.

[Dauersack]

I'd rather wish Vince would have a heart attack instead of coming back, that guy maliciously ruined hundreds of lifes in his time, perhaps even thousands if all the rumours about him are true, he had no right to even live that long with that kind of track record, let alone fuck things up further with that demented brain of his. Definitely not good news for anyone given how much the company has improved overall since he finally left.

 

As for Mandy Rose, pretty damn stupid to fire her for that. From what I have seen she posted some topless stuff, holding her implants into the camera, thats likely about it. They did not fire Paige when she was seen on video being the biggest slut in the companies history, letting one of her many boyfriends at the time jizz all over the nxt womens belt she was carrying, they kept her around for years on end. It fits into Mandies character as well, so they might as well could have done an angle on it instead, the company used to push women to the moon for posing nude for Playboy, and now they fire women for it because they are not the ones directly making the profit off of it, not to mention how many drug addicted criminal wrecks they have in prominent roles, hypocritical as always.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Dauersack