WWE Thread

[jncuse]

 

[jordville]

 

[jncuse]

Certainly there are many people that have reasonably valid beefs with WWE and Vince, such as Ryback, but his comment below after the death of Vince's mom is totally over the top. He keeps claiming the WWE killed his brand or is trying to kill his brand now -- but this can't help the brand.

Personally I found he was a bit interesting when he came around initially against Punk around 2012 I think, but not sure if he was a sustainable push character either. He never got booked very strongly after his first year except for a few one offs and from what I remember left WWE voluntarily as he was not happy with the situation (around 5 years ago)

EDIT - I guess the tweet has been deleted, so here is the copy of it

 

[samspann1]

 

[MSOrange]

Wrestling promos that go off the rails are hilarious.

 

[Symphony Steve]

Sasha Banks and Naomi legit walked out of Raw last night. While details are still sparse, they left their tag team belts behind. They were supposed to be part of a 6-way match to determine the next challenger to Bianca Belair. In fact, Naomi, who was scripted to win, is the wife of Jimmy Uso.

WWE buried them in a press release:

When Sasha Banks and Naomi arrived at the arena this afternoon, they were informed of their participation in the main event of tonight’s Monday Night Raw.

During the broadcast, they walked into WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis’ office with their suitcases in hand, placed their tag team championship belts on his desk and walked out.


They claimed they weren’t respected enough as tag team champions. And even though they had eight hours to rehearse and construct their match, they claimed they were uncomfortable in the ring with two of their opponents – even though they’d had matches with those individuals in the past with no consequence.
Monday Night Raw is a scripted live TV show, whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their contract.

We regret we were unable to deliver, as advertised, tonight’s main event. The main event to tonight’s Raw was reportedly changed after Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out of tonight’s show.

I bolded that line b/c WWE rarely delivers matches as advertised. Especially for Raw and Smackdown.

 

[jordville]

 

[cusefan88]

There's lots of decent options now for professional wrestlers. Sasha Banks is popular enough to make it outside of WWE. Naomi will be welcomed back because she's with the Usos and therefore connected to the top guy in the company.

Finally nice to some real heat going on. Need more shoots! Less works.

 

[OrangeDW]

There's lots of decent options now for professional wrestlers. Sasha Banks is popular enough to make it outside of WWE. Naomi will be welcomed back because she's with the Usos and therefore connected to the top guy in the company.

Finally nice to some real heat going on. Need more shoots! Less works.

Banks - Baker in AEW would be GOLD.

 

[MSOrange]

 

[Symphony Steve]

Wow. I hope that she and Hunter are OK. He's had serious health issues.

 

[Symphony Steve]

Dave Meltzer is reporting that Cody Rhodes hurt himself weight-training. Wrestlers are saying that he tore a pec. As of now, he's expected to try to gut out the match with Seth Rollins tonight.

However, if he gets surgery, he's likely to be out a minimum of 7 months. Time to call Brock?

 

[OrangeDW]

Dave Meltzer is reporting that Cody Rhodes hurt himself weight-training. Wrestlers are saying that he tore a pec. As of now, he's expected to try to gut out the match with Seth Rollins tonight.

However, if he gets surgery, he's likely to be out a minimum of 7 months. Time to call Brock?

Alright - just looked it up on their website because I haven’t watched since….Rumble maybe? Not sure.

Reigns has both belts? Usos have both tag belts? That seems lazy. Why have two belts if….never mind.

Who is Theory? US champion?

They have like 17 different NXT champions? Huh?

 

[jordville]

Dave Meltzer is reporting that Cody Rhodes hurt himself weight-training. Wrestlers are saying that he tore a pec. As of now, he's expected to try to gut out the match with Seth Rollins tonight.

However, if he gets surgery, he's likely to be out a minimum of 7 months. Time to call Brock?

His chest/should looks awful.

 

[OrangeDW]

What??!! I can’t believe they’re letting him wrestle?

 

[jncuse]

Pretty strong praise for Cody.

I have to give it to Cody -- the work he has done with Rollins and various promo work he has done has been very well received and reviewed by WWE standards based on my listening to various shows and podcasts. I have only seen some of it (and not all of it) because I don't watch all core WWE content right now but what I have seen is good. Most other stuff has been crap apparently, but the wrestling on the last PPV (not tonights) was apparently quite good despite stagnant storylines, although I did not watch it yet.

But they have been riding Cody so hard since Wrestlemania he risked overexposure. This should be able to build some equity in his character when he comes back.

 

[jncuse]

Alright - just looked it up on their website because I haven’t watched since….Rumble maybe? Not sure.

Reigns has both belts? Usos have both tag belts? That seems lazy. Why have two belts if….never mind.

Who is Theory? US champion?

They have like 17 different NXT champions? Huh?

Here's the best thing (or most screwed up thing) - they have not had Roman Reigns defend the title on the last two pay per views - wrestled in a 6 man last time and didn't even wrestle tonight . It's been about 2 months since Wrestlemania and I don't think he has defended the title once on TV or PPV.

I don't mind them unifying the title, if they then made the secondary titles mean something. But they don't/

 

[jncuse]

After seeing a bunch of hype in the last few minutes on twitter about the Cody-Rollins match I decided I should try to watch it tonight and fast forward through the rest of the stuff. Because if I start from the beginning no way I make it to the main tonight.

Didn't even know the matches on the card. But just noticed this as I was scanning and stopped to note the following:
- At Wrestlemania Lashley beats Omos
- Last PPV Omos beats Lashley
- This PPV Lashley beats Omos+MVP in a handicap match

What an odd sequence of booking - Omos is also terrible.

 

[OrangeDW]

Here's the best thing (or most screwed up thing) - they have not had Roman Reigns defend the title on the last two pay per views - wrestled in a 6 man last time and didn't even wrestle tonight . It's been about 2 months since Wrestlemania and I don't think he has defended the title once on TV or PPV.

I don't mind them unifying the title, if they then made the secondary titles mean something. But they don't/

If I recall, didn’t Cena towards the end of his full time years have a run as either US or IC champ where he was defending the title like every week, and putting on great matches?

Gotta do something like that if your champ isn’t wrestling. Have someone like Styles or Edge win one of the mid card titles and defend it every week for a few months with great matches and elevate it, and then make whoever they eventually put over for it.

 

[Symphony Steve]

Two outstanding matches on the show. Three-way women's match was very strong. The Beck character, though, is well nigh unwatchable. They ought to ride Bianca Belair to the moon. So charismatic.

The Cody -Seth match was great, with made-to-order psychology. However, seriously, they let him wrestle with that? Nobody in WWE who can say 'no'? Rollins is another great wrestler with a horrible gimmick.

It was worth the money I didn't pay for it.

 

[jordville]

Two outstanding matches on the show. Three-way women's match was very strong. The Beck character, though, is well nigh unwatchable. They ought to ride Bianca Belair to the moon. So charismatic.

The Cody -Seth match was great, with made-to-order psychology. However, seriously, they let him wrestle with that? Nobody in WWE who can say 'no'? Rollins is another great wrestler with a horrible gimmick.

It was worth the money I didn't pay for it.

Agreed. Opening and closing matches were top notch. Bianca was amazing. Cody's adrenaline and whatever is allowed under their wellness policy got him through Hell in a Cell. I thought they'd cut that match shorter, but it ended up being the longest match of the night. I've never torn my pec, but apparently once it is a full tear off the bone.. you can't make it any worse. It is just pain management at that point.

Not a fan of the mixed gender tag matches. Plus Liv Morgan does not fit with that booking. She isn't on her teams or opponents levels.. I like the AJ and Finn faction (Bullet Club) and even Edge's Judement Day too, but they need more (and better) pieces if they want to do it right.

 

[Symphony Steve]

Agreed. Opening and closing matches were top notch. Bianca was amazing. Cody's adrenaline and whatever is allowed under their wellness policy got him through Hell in a Cell. I thought they'd cut that match shorter, but it ended up being the longest match of the night. I've never torn my pec, but apparently once it is a full tear off the bone.. you can't make it any worse. It is just pain management at that point.

Not a fan of the mixed gender tag matches. Plus Liv Morgan does not fit with that booking. She isn't on her teams or opponents levels.. I like the AJ and Finn faction (Bullet Club) and even Edge's Judement Day too, but they need more (and better) pieces if they want to do it right.

That Seth/Cody match will likely go down in history. We've seen zillions of angles where one wrestler exploits a fake injury. But this was legit. At first, I thought Seth should have won, with Cody likely to be out for several months. But, for better or worse, Cody is now legendary, at least for awhile. So, I think they made the right call.

 

[jordville]

That Seth/Cody match will likely go down in history. We've seen zillions of angles where one wrestler exploits a fake injury. But this was legit. At first, I thought Seth should have won, with Cody likely to be out for several months. But, for better or worse, Cody is now legendary, at least for awhile. So, I think they made the right call.

Thought the same. Instead of Cody going away for 6 months (or however long), they should track the progress on Cody's road to recovery-- the ups and downs. Maybe not weekly, but bi-weekly or monthly to keep his face on TV.

 

[Vorony]

Do we see Wyatt tonight on Raw? They desperately need star power this summer with Reigns taking some time off, Cena in Hollywood, Rhodes on the injured list, etc. Or do they go back to Lesnar earlier than planned?

 

[Symphony Steve]

Cody's surgery is set for Thursday. Based on what I've read about his injury, six months looks to be the minimum amount of time he'll be out.