The WWE Discussion Thread

[snakebit10]

On 7/10/2022 at 7:58 AM, Rozalia1 said:

NXT 2.0

 

Very good result putting the tag belts on Team 2001. I'm interested to see if this in essence a consolation prize for Roxanne or if they are actually going to make her a double champion. If they do make her double champion then the likely story would be building up to a Cora heel turn. On the other hand Nikkita is another strong contender for the title and if Roxanne wins it then Nikkita is going to have her spin her wheels for ages.

 

Trick if he works out the in ring stuff will be a excellent talent as he has everything else down. The boxer look is something different and I think looked good on him. I liked the trickery with the water bottles. He should keep that going forward as a heel tactic he is known for and use other heel tricks, after all, he is Trick Williams.

 

Waller has been showing that he ain't just a promo and can bring it in the ring too. That flipping Unprettier or whatever it was looked devastating and could easily be a finish.

 

 

Someone clearly wants Vince gone, but he ain't going to sell it. Why would he anyway if you think about it? Vince has been hated by the people angry right now for decades, and when that is the case there is no reason to care about whatever they think. Then you have the rich people of "polite society" reading the Wall Street Journal who Vince's haters want to do away with him. Vince has wanted to join their club for decades, and for decades they have looked down on him as "that low class wrestling guy", so they aren't going to influence him.

 

You see the possibility of a Cora heel turn also? I think it will be one of jealousy, especially if Roxanne wins against Mandy.

 

If Roxanne does win, do you think it could mean that Toxic Attraction may get the call up to the main roster soon? Or is it a case of NXT 2.0 being ready to push new stars. 

[SelectiveGamer]

So some news articles who have been covering this Vince controversy and probably Vince himself wants everyone to believe that if he is forced to leave... the entire company will collapse because 'WWE doesn't exist without Vince McMahon' or whatever wording you want to use to describe the general perceived notion that WWE is Vince McMahon and they don't trust the company being run by anybody else.

 

Is this the case? I'd say ABSOLUTELY NOT. But this notion constantly being pushed... may actually make it true. If things get worse (which I'm sure they will. Stuff like this gets worse not better) to the point where Vince is forced out or whatever... he's so god damn spiteful he may make this notion true and take the whole company down with him.

 

If that happens... I'm gone. Because I refuse to watch AEW only and for it to become the new monopoly and I'm not going to sit there and listen to TK invite WWE people to 'perform' while 'things get figured out'

 

So I'll be gone too. So all of this false narrative constantly being pushed... if it makes it true because of it being pushed as such... then I won't watch AEW anymore or AEW only. Sorry. It's not happening. But don't take this as me saying that I want Vince to get away with it. Because I don't. Something needs to be done about this. Clearly.

 

But if this is the result due to Vince's spite? Yep. Goodbye.

[Rozalia1]

18 hours ago, snakebit10 said:

You see the possibility of a Cora heel turn also? I think it will be one of jealousy, especially if Roxanne wins against Mandy.

 

If Roxanne does win, do you think it could mean that Toxic Attraction may get the call up to the main roster soon? Or is it a case of NXT 2.0 being ready to push new stars. 

 

As far as I know she was actually a heel in her short career before NXT. Had a goth look and carried a mini coffin to the ring. Her first appearance (before NXT 2.0) had her as a jobber with that look, but once 2.0 rolled around she got the look she has currently. I'm not sure I'd be for turning her heel as why not build two top babyfaces, but if one of them is going heel then she'd make sense. As you said, the jealousy angle of "I was the young one that everyone praised as the future, but then you showed up and suddenly you were all people cared about" is an easy story. One aspect I find really interesting with Cora is how she is deceptively tall. A lot of people put it in their minds that she is 5'2 or something and then they see her in matches with people of that sort of size and Cora just towers over them.

 

Hopefully. For all the talk from the sheetz that NXT 2.0 was all about very quickly sending people up that has not been the case. Possibly, hopefully, they are the reason the Women's tag titles on the main roster have been dormant, so they can give them to Toxic Attraction when they come up. The story is as easy as "Mandy Rose sweet talked management who have agreed that Toxic Attraction is worthy of the belts". As for Mandy... she'd want a belt too to really sell Toxic Attraction as being credible and there are a couple of options here assuming that they won't give her either of the women's titles. 1: 24/7 title lately has largely been a women's title, confirm it as such with Mandy by announcing that Vince has decreed that only Women can try to win it off Mandy. 2: Make a women's midcard belt and give it to Mandy. 3: Give Mandy an old title (Women's/Diva's) as a vanity belt.

 

18 hours ago, SelectiveGamer said:

So some news articles who have been covering this Vince controversy and probably Vince himself wants everyone to believe that if he is forced to leave... the entire company will collapse because 'WWE doesn't exist without Vince McMahon' or whatever wording you want to use to describe the general perceived notion that WWE is Vince McMahon and they don't trust the company being run by anybody else.

 

Is this the case? I'd say ABSOLUTELY NOT. But this notion constantly being pushed... may actually make it true. If things get worse (which I'm sure they will. Stuff like this gets worse not better) to the point where Vince is forced out or whatever... he's so god damn spiteful he may make this notion true and take the whole company down with him.

 

If that happens... I'm gone. Because I refuse to watch AEW only and for it to become the new monopoly and I'm not going to sit there and listen to TK invite WWE people to 'perform' while 'things get figured out'

 

So I'll be gone too. So all of this false narrative constantly being pushed... if it makes it true because of it being pushed as such... then I won't watch AEW anymore or AEW only. Sorry. It's not happening. But don't take this as me saying that I want Vince to get away with it. Because I don't. Something needs to be done about this. Clearly.

 

But if this is the result due to Vince's spite? Yep. Goodbye.

 

They don't need to work hard on that, investors have believed that about Vince since they went public. As for the news, having more coming out of the woodwork isn't going to hurt Vince as it'll instead help him. Something Vince has benefited from is the fact that so many news people that report on Wrestling out there so obviously loath him that anything they report is marked off as biased and unfair reporting.

 

As for spite... I don't see it. Vince has already set up NXT 2.0 to be his legacy and even if somehow AEW can take the top spot in the business they're still Sports Entertainment no matter how much they bleat about being "real Professional Wrestling" so Vince still wins.

[snakebit10]

1 hour ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

As far as I know she was actually a heel in her short career before NXT. Had a goth look and carried a mini coffin to the ring. Her first appearance (before NXT 2.0) had her as a jobber with that look, but once 2.0 rolled around she got the look she has currently. I'm not sure I'd be for turning her heel as why not build two top babyfaces, but if one of them is going heel then she'd make sense. As you said, the jealousy angle of "I was the young one that everyone praised as the future, but then you showed up and suddenly you were all people cared about" is an easy story. One aspect I find really interesting with Cora is how she is deceptively tall. A lot of people put it in their minds that she is 5'2 or something and then they see her in matches with people of that sort of size and Cora just towers over them.

 

Hopefully. For all the talk from the sheetz that NXT 2.0 was all about very quickly sending people up that has not been the case. Possibly, hopefully, they are the reason the Women's tag titles on the main roster have been dormant, so they can give them to Toxic Attraction when they come up. The story is as easy as "Mandy Rose sweet talked management who have agreed that Toxic Attraction is worthy of the belts". As for Mandy... she'd want a belt too to really sell Toxic Attraction as being credible and there are a couple of options here assuming that they won't give her either of the women's titles. 1: 24/7 title lately has largely been a women's title, confirm it as such with Mandy by announcing that Vince has decreed that only Women can try to win it off Mandy. 2: Make a women's midcard belt and give it to Mandy. 3: Give Mandy an old title (Women's/Diva's) as a vanity belt.

 

 

They don't need to work hard on that, investors have believed that about Vince since they went public. As for the news, having more coming out of the woodwork isn't going to hurt Vince as it'll instead help him. Something Vince has benefited from is the fact that so many news people that report on Wrestling out there so obviously loath him that anything they report is marked off as biased and unfair reporting.

 

As for spite... I don't see it. Vince has already set up NXT 2.0 to be his legacy and even if somehow AEW can take the top spot in the business they're still Sports Entertainment no matter how much they bleat about being "real Professional Wrestling" so Vince still wins.

 

Cora's name in the indies was Elayna Black. She also hat what looked like Taro cards and she would give her opponent one before the match. I seen some rip them up or throw them back at her. She did carry a little coffin around and I believe she kept the cards in it. So if she turned heel it wouldn't surprise me. I wouldn't do it just yet though. I would let them have a little run with the Tag Titles. I couldn't see Roxanne as a heel. 

 

 

[Infected Elite]

missed GAB. But i am curious who eventually beats Mandy. They had it seem like Roxy but since she won tag titles its harder to say she would go on to beat Mandy and be a double champ.

 

Anyways i think Mandy could hold it for a year or more. I'm a big fan of Toxic Attraction. 

 

doesnt nxt have a big takeover before SummerSlam normally? is that still the case this year? 

[snakebit10]

1 hour ago, Infected Elite said:

missed GAB. But i am curious who eventually beats Mandy. They had it seem like Roxy but since she won tag titles its harder to say she would go on to beat Mandy and be a double champ.

 

Anyways i think Mandy could hold it for a year or more. I'm a big fan of Toxic Attraction. 

 

doesnt nxt have a big takeover before SummerSlam normally? is that still the case this year? 

 

Haven't seen anything about a Takeover before Summerslam.

 

I could see Roxanne still winning. Especially if Toxic Attraction gets put on main roster soon. Don't know if that will happen or it happens at the draft this year. 

[Infected Elite]

14 minutes ago, snakebit10 said:

 

Haven't seen anything about a Takeover before Summerslam.

 

I could see Roxanne still winning. Especially if Toxic Attraction gets put on main roster soon. Don't know if that will happen or it happens at the draft this year. 

 

I hope they don't. Not yet. They'll get buried under Charlotte and Rousey and Becky and Bianca. Its annoying seeing the same 4 at the top. 5 if you count Bayley. 

 

Thats why i want Liv to have a fair chance but WWE bout to fuck her over at Summerslam..probably. Even if she won, her challengers will be them...

 

Becky vs Bianca again at SSlam too.... ugh

 

Not that i dont want Toxic Attraction on Raw or SD, it's just, where do they fit and how? 

[Rozalia1]

And there is the heel turn for Cora. Unfortunate break on the skateboard, happens, but I think she saved it by using half of it to pummel Roxanne. The likely result of this is them putting the tag titles back on Toxic Attraction and having Nikkita win the title, but we'll see. Nothing wrong with the obvious, though putting the tag titles back on Toxic Attraction for a second time so soon after they lose it is one way to make people not care about if anyone beats Toxic Attraction or not, because seemingly they'll always win it right back soon after. There really isn't any other teams that could win the titles. Nikkita is going for the women's title obviously so you can't do a "The Bar" like team with Lash Legend where those two huge heavyweight women just destroy everybody. Roxanne and Cora could both get partners I suppose and you could strap up one of those teams. You could also debut two new people and have them win it, but who that'd be is hard for me to tell as I don't follow whatever trainees the performance centre picks up. The only women that come to mind that are signed are that MMA fighter they picked up recently and the Rock's daughter who has come back from injury.

 

Indy's gimmick seems to be someone who has lost a lot of confidence in herself and... she nails it... except it clearly seems to not just be a gimmick for her and it is a shoot. Putting her out there is not doing her any favours at the moment. Either find her something she can do character work with on the show or send her up to the main roster so she can be Theory's girlfriend or whatever. In terms of ring work I don't think she'll ever improve until she drops trying to be a normal wrestler and starts focusing on the power moves. You'd not think it considering her moveset but Indy is around the same size as Raquel.

 

Gacy needs to get moved up to the main roster because his stuff would have a better chance of landing there, especially with a GM to play off. I think there would be something in him as WWE's diversity and inclusion officer who gives heels like Sonya constant opportunities and advantages.

 

Solo Sikoa gets into a lot of these types of brawl which I'm okay with as they call him the street fighting champion, so it fits he'd get into these fights.

 

I was surprised that Grimes screaming at JD wasn't bleeped because he went in.

 

Giovanni Vinci getting broken off from Gunther seems to have been a blessing.

[Dauersack]

It was announced that come the July 18th version of Raw, the shitty PG rating is history. With the company going back to a TV 14 rating and with the horrible fiend gimmick seemingly dead and buried for good, I will actually come back and give this company another chance. Watching wrestling turned into an insufferable experience when I quit, I skipped through the vast majority and most big matches were super disappointing or downright insulting. Let's see if they have learned, things I heard from this company during the over 2 years I was gone varied, I try to be open minded despite some real facepalms I have indirectly witnessed, like the stupid name changes of some wrestlers.

[sk_lp_him]

14 hours ago, Dauersack said:

It was announced that come the July 18th version of Raw, the shitty PG rating is history. With the company going back to a TV 14 rating and with the horrible fiend gimmick seemingly dead and buried for good, I will actually come back and give this company another chance. Watching wrestling turned into an insufferable experience when I quit, I skipped through the vast majority and most big matches were super disappointing or downright insulting. Let's see if they have learned, things I heard from this company during the over 2 years I was gone varied, I try to be open minded despite some real facepalms I have indirectly witnessed, like the stupid name changes of some wrestlers.

 

As long as Vince is head of creative the rating change won't mean much. We'll still get dumb and boring shows with the same characters with a little bit of swearing added.

[Rozalia1]

18 hours ago, Dauersack said:

It was announced that come the July 18th version of Raw, the shitty PG rating is history. With the company going back to a TV 14 rating and with the horrible fiend gimmick seemingly dead and buried for good, I will actually come back and give this company another chance. Watching wrestling turned into an insufferable experience when I quit, I skipped through the vast majority and most big matches were super disappointing or downright insulting. Let's see if they have learned, things I heard from this company during the over 2 years I was gone varied, I try to be open minded despite some real facepalms I have indirectly witnessed, like the stupid name changes of some wrestlers.

 

3 hours ago, sk_lp_him said:

As long as Vince is head of creative the rating change won't mean much. We'll still get dumb and boring shows with the same characters with a little bit of swearing added.

 

Apparently that was premature reporting as while it is apparently changing (could always be stopped), it won't be that soon.

 

As for what it means, perhaps NXT 2.0 has been the test run for this move. If so then that is good as while it might man more risqué stuff it won't mean people bleeding buckets constantly like it does in AEW. Talent wise it might benefit some people too. Toxic Attraction I'd think would get a bigger push on a TV14 main roster than on a PG one. MJF if they bring him in would get less hampered too.

[sk_lp_him]

1 hour ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

 

Apparently that was premature reporting as while it is apparently changing (could always be stopped), it won't be that soon.

 

As for what it means, perhaps NXT 2.0 has been the test run for this move. If so then that is good as while it might man more risqué stuff it won't mean people bleeding buckets constantly like it does in AEW. Talent wise it might benefit some people too. Toxic Attraction I'd think would get a bigger push on a TV14 main roster than on a PG one. MJF if they bring him in would get less hampered too.

 

Better bleeding buckets than vomit. The weird old guy loves disgusting stuff.

[Rozalia1]

3 hours ago, sk_lp_him said:

Better bleeding buckets than vomit. The weird old guy loves disgusting stuff.

 

I'd rather have a vomit spot once every couple of years than having people constantly blading to the point that it looks low class and on top of that, meaningless. Cody inevitably bleeding will mean a lot more if other guys haven't been blading constantly.

[Dauersack]

5 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

 

Apparently that was premature reporting as while it is apparently changing (could always be stopped), it won't be that soon.

 

Haven't really found anything to support that, so I just give it a shot, going Raw and Smackdown for about a month maybe, which with Summerslam in the middle should give me the full picture of how the overall quality of the product is now compared to the time I left.

9 hours ago, sk_lp_him said:

 

As long as Vince is head of creative the rating change won't mean much. We'll still get dumb and boring shows with the same characters with a little bit of swearing added.

Perhaps. I do not need the entire show to be great though, a few good things are sufficient to keep me interested if the rest is not insufferable, and there used to be a time when the company was able to produce good stuff besides having to endure Vinces influence.

 

Blading and other stuff being back can do a lot for the matches. Many of my favorite moments included blading, I do not really care if it is overdone at some point either. Aside from blading and swearing, a higher rating also opens the door for more severe interactions between feuding wrestlers.

[Rozalia1]

20 hours ago, Dauersack said:

Haven't really found anything to support that, so I just give it a shot, going Raw and Smackdown for about a month maybe, which with Summerslam in the middle should give me the full picture of how the overall quality of the product is now compared to the time I left.

Perhaps. I do not need the entire show to be great though, a few good things are sufficient to keep me interested if the rest is not insufferable, and there used to be a time when the company was able to produce good stuff besides having to endure Vinces influence.

 

Blading and other stuff being back can do a lot for the matches. Many of my favorite moments included blading, I do not really care if it is overdone at some point either. Aside from blading and swearing, a higher rating also opens the door for more severe interactions between feuding wrestlers.

 

 

There are people that don't get tired of it sure, there are even people (as minute as the number is) that enjoy that deathmatch garbage. If you keep blood special and only for the big moments then you'll get more out of it, simple fact of the matter. Thankfully WWE has for decades now worked to improve the public's view of professional wrestling which constant bloodbaths would work against so they shouldn't try to emulate AEW. Helps also that none of their main event talent that can push for more blood is as stupid as the likes of Moxley.

[SelectiveGamer]

It doesn't matter if it goes back to TV-14 or not. Absolutely nothing will change as long as Vince is running it.

 

But I imagine Cody Rhodes is drooling over the prospect of being able to bleed all over a WWE ring. ?

[Valzentia]

On 7/14/2022 at 3:09 PM, Dauersack said:

the horrible fiend gimmick seemingly dead and buried for good

translation: "I hate fun"

On 7/16/2022 at 6:27 PM, SelectiveGamer said:

It doesn't matter if it goes back to TV-14 or not. Absolutely nothing will change as long as Vince is running it.

Call me optimistic all you want but maybe a switch to TV-14 is just what the doctor ordered? Perhaps Vince will focus more on compelling storylines and what not now that he isn't being held back by the TV-PG rating. I'm not getting my hopes up since this is Vince McMahon we're talking about, but maybe things will be alright.

[Rozalia1]

NXT 2.0

 

McDonagh seems to be skilled in the ring, so where he'll need to develop will be on his character work which to that end NXT has given him... a sort of doctor gimmick? He got pretty wrecked in the promo battle with Bron here and I don't think the crowd is going to care much for these doctor promos as they're coming so soon after the Gacy feud which had Gacy do these sort of promos to Bron too.

 

Speaking of Gacy, bloody hell at those makeovers of the Grizzled Young Veterans. They look like completely different people. Jagger looks like a member of a cult while Rip looks a Neo-Nazi. I actually love the funny detail that Progressive Gacy when he converts people to the right side of history makes them look like they're far right wing guys. Happened with his previous enforcer too.

 

Good stuff from Cora Jade. Her reason for turning made sense, she has a nice heel tone in her voice, and the dumping the title in the trash was a nice moment. I did say in one of my first comments about her that while she could well be a top face star, she likely could work even better as a heel one, and I think that is still correct. 

 

The best Roderick Strong has sounded in a very long time I have to say. The secret I suppose is to have Strong scream all of his promos. Julius Creed had some nice fire in the later promo where he gave the Tony D'Angelo two choices.

 

Tony D'Angelo while still under the same gimmick has gone through quite the change. Previously he'd deny knowledge of doing attacks and be all coy. Now? They've implied he killed a guy, he put Santos in the ICU for laughing at him over the phone, he has threatened his own goons with bad things happening if they don't win wrestling matches, keeps doing gang beatdowns on people, and not even the other heels on the roster are safe from all this because no one gets in the way of Tony D. Legato seemed completely on board this week also which is interesting. I know the whole Italian Mafia to most doesn't make sense when you start recruiting non-Italians into it but there is always the Joey Zaza, who recruited Latinos and Blacks into his family because "he had a good heart".

 

I'm pleased that the cowboys are doing so well because at first it looked like they might not make it. Pretty Deadly should really be on the main roster.

 

Axiom debuted and has a nice entrance certainly. Funny that he was facing Dante Chen who needs a mask more than A-Kid did. Wouldn't be a bad idea for a feud between the two where Dante gets his own mask.

 

The Women's battle royal was excellent especially when you factor in how green so many women are, and a battle royal is pretty much the worst type of match you can do for a green talent. Good showing for the division as you can see that the division has numbers and talent. Was surprising that Kiana James made the final four, but someone else had to when the other options had stories to their eliminations. Alba and Lash took each other out so neither got a victory over the other here. Ivy had to go out as they're building her being a tag team with Paxley.The surprise return of Zoey Stark went well though I assume she is a filler challenger for Mandy. From what I remember Zoey can go in the ring, so hopefully she has been working on her character work while she was out.

 

On 16/07/2022 at 11:27 PM, SelectiveGamer said:

It doesn't matter if it goes back to TV-14 or not. Absolutely nothing will change as long as Vince is running it.

 

On 19/07/2022 at 7:25 AM, Valzentia said:

Call me optimistic all you want but maybe a switch to TV-14 is just what the doctor ordered? Perhaps Vince will focus more on compelling storylines and what not now that he isn't being held back by the TV-PG rating. I'm not getting my hopes up since this is Vince McMahon we're talking about, but maybe things will be alright.

 

Vince is to blame because he is the boss, but the problem has never been Vince himself being a bad booker or "not knowing anything about wrestling" like certain internet marks arrogantly think. The issue is the system he has built where there is a million middle men, worse of all his inner circle, who can muck things up. As shown in rare times such as 205 Live when he was booking it with a small team and was personally helping out the talent with their gimmicks, Vince can do great work. In a way NXT 2.0 is sort of a view of how WWE would be booked by Vince if he didn't have all that chaff around him.

[MD_91]

Looks like Vince has "retired" 

 

Never thought I would see that happen but with all the recent allegations and seemingly more to come I guess he's realised he'd better get out while it's still his choice

[Infected Elite]

Vince retired. Good! thanks for the contribution but good riddance. Bring back PG14, Bra and panties, blood, swearing etc.

 

as for allegations, id love to see it come back and royally screw him over.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Infected Elite

[Cloemoester]

Get your popcorn ready folks. Apparently with Vince retiring, brock has now walked out of smackdown.

Summerslam is literally *checks calendar* NEXT WEEKEND!! :0 

 

This is going to get interesting now  ?

[Infected Elite]

26 minutes ago, Cloemoester said:

Get your popcorn ready folks. Apparently with Vince retiring, brock has now walked out of smackdown.

Summerslam is literally *checks calendar* NEXT WEEKEND!! :0 

 

This is going to get interesting now  ?

 

Yeah im not shocked but hopefully Roman leaves too. Give the young talent the platform they need. No one can do shit with Roman hogging everything. 

 

I also know HHH doesnt see what Vince does in Roman. 

 

But SummerSlam is looking to be shit. Aside from possibly shotgunning Theory to the top, what else is there?

[snakebit10]

37 minutes ago, Infected Elite said:

 

Yeah im not shocked but hopefully Roman leaves too. Give the young talent the platform they need. No one can do shit with Roman hogging everything. 

 

I also know HHH doesnt see what Vince does in Roman. 

 

But SummerSlam is looking to be shit. Aside from possibly shotgunning Theory to the top, what else is there?

 

 

I wonder if Theory get's the same push now. He is Vinces guy.

[Infected Elite]

5 minutes ago, snakebit10 said:

 

 

I wonder if Theory get's the same push now. He is Vinces guy.

 

ah true.... fuck Vince. lol. WWE may still go tv14 but we wont be getting any hardcore matches an shit. HHH i dont think even likes Cody so who knows on that front too.

 

Ah still, until Roman goes however that may be, wwe wont be getting any better.

[Glorious Fury]

Surely Kevin Dunn (pretty sure Steph/HHH cannot stand him), Bruce Prichard and co are walking on eggshells now. With Nick Khan, he'll ensure the company will remain as profitable as ever and from this point I'd never rule out some sort of sale going forward.

 

Also where is Shane in all this, perhaps not bothered about being in charge? 

 

Edited July 22, 2022 by Glorious Fury