Lets Discuss All Things Wrestling - Even The T-Shirt Company AEW!

[Mox]

43 minutes ago, MikeT14 said:

But he didn't do anything to Roman. He went after the Rock. That was the only thing.

I am guessing SCSA was option A but either he declined or something happened and they pivoted to 'Taker. It worked well enough despite 'Taker looking a little rough. 

Also easy to use Taker's intro/outro to clear the ring.

[bucksavage1]

2 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

Sheamus and probably Alexa make sense for returns tonight

I think Sheamus contract expired if I’m not mistaken

 

I think we see Jacob Fatu debut tonight. A bloodline expansion 

[MikeT14]

Do Paul and Roman go their separate ways now too? I always like Paul working with the next big thing. Could be good to see him with someone like Bronn.

[bcb1213]

9 minutes ago, bucksavage1 said:

I think Sheamus contract expired if I’m not mistaken

 

I think we see Jacob Fatu debut tonight. A bloodline expansion 

Originally yes but with the injury, it likely got extended a couple months. Imagine they'll send him off if he doesn't resign at clash at the castle

[Dr LBC]

1 hour ago, MikeT14 said:

But he didn't do anything to Roman. He went after the Rock. That was the only thing.

I am guessing SCSA was option A but either he declined or something happened and they pivoted to 'Taker. It worked well enough despite 'Taker looking a little rough. 

And he shouldn't have.  There's a difference between seating a white meat babyface atop the mountain and just any old fbabyface.  And the thing is, Cody is the antithetical type of white meat babyface that Cena was; Cena was more in the Hogan mold where he'd hulk up/go Superman and triumph.  Cody is more in the mold of his dad (ironic, I know) and even Bret Hart, he's gonna get beat down and beaten down and beaten down some more but he's going to keep dragging his butt through the finish.

But I think there's a built-in logic to Hunter greenlighting Taker being the one to thwart Rock.  I genuinely feel like, and we'll see how much CAA fight against this grain, Hunter wants to lean out from the stuff Vince was notorious for - of bringing the old guard around in competitive capacities even when they're clearly past their primes.  Rock presented them with that kind of conundrum this year, because you can't book the Rock for Wrestlemania and have him in a supporting/non-main match.  Similarly, if you have an Austin/Rock confrontation at Wrestlemania two years removed from Austin having a Mania match and a night after Rock had his first match in a decade, the groundswell will be for another Rock/Austin match that won't be to the quality of their standards and will take time/opportunity on the card away from the boys and girls that are grinding week-to-week for the company.  In short, part-timers are good for what they got used as last night - pop opportunity props and special guest referees/enforcers.

And in the long story not-so-short version of that, Taker's made it clear... he's done.  He's not doing one more match.  The boots (ok, hat and gloves) have been left in the ring for good.  And while Rock may be on the board now, in the ring is still Taker's yard... even in retirement.  It sets the unspoken standard that what Rock pulled the night before in using his executive power to influence the match result in his favor via threatening the ref wasn't going to fly moving forward.  And since I do think we're probably going to get a Rock/Cody match at some point this year, you've still got Austin in the chamber if Rock doesn't toe that line and still tries to be like an all new HeWhoShallNotBeNamed character.

Edited April 8 by Dr LBC

[bigbadbuff]

 

 

[beekay414]

4 hours ago, sdrawkcab321 said:

So Seth has to get a shot at the title right? He sacrificed the most. And when he was congratulating Cody it looked like he say you owe me. So there will probably be some one off title match between the two. I could even see it happening on raw so they can move on to a bigger storyline.

 

He didn't say you owe me. He said you earned this. 

[sdrawkcab321]

3 hours ago, MikeT14 said:

Do Paul and Roman go their separate ways now too? I always like Paul working with the next big thing. Could be good to see him with someone like Bronn.

No way. Paul took Roman to the next level. Roman without Paul goes back to being a mediocre mic worker who only wrestles once a month. He needs Paul to carry his storyline. But he could manage someone else too. 

[MikeT14]

2 minutes ago, sdrawkcab321 said:

No way. Paul took Roman to the next level. Roman without Paul goes back to being a mediocre mic worker who only wrestles once a month. He needs Paul to carry his storyline. But he could manage someone else too. 

I don't watch all the time, I just catch up through articles and watch the big PPVs. So I thought I heard Roman was better in that sense, but maybe not. 

[Dr LBC]

13 minutes ago, MikeT14 said:

I don't watch all the time, I just catch up through articles and watch the big PPVs. So I thought I heard Roman was better in that sense, but maybe not. 

He is better.  Also, Roman without Vince and Vince's reject Hollywood script-writers is noticeably better than Roman with them.  Has Paul had some clear influence on that?  Absolutely, but it's not like that influence goes away just because Paul's character may not be attached at the hip and being obsequious to Roman's character.  At least his heel persona shouldn't change much in terms of quality because it was literally just Joe being Joe - multiple sources have confirmed this.  Surprise surprise, someone comes across a whole lot more genuine when you're not scripting them with stupid lines and just letting them do what guys were trained for generations to do: "Turn their own personalities up to 11."

Moreover, the money feud that they pretty clearly want to build to is Roman/Rock at next year's Mania.  Rock's not going over in that match unless they call another audible based on crowd reaction (i.e. Rock/Hogan).  So Roman being the edgy babyface and kicking some of Rock's own stuff back in his face is definitely on the table - and he has the built-up badass cred to get away with a lot of it.  You let Roman bring up and ridicule that Gerwertz is writing Rock's material for him.  You have him reach out and one point and grab Rock by the wrist to "check" his hand for crib notes.  Basically, he can still be a bit of an arsehole and still a babyface - Hunter, of all people, has firsthand experience with this, by both him and Bautista.

He doesn't have to come back and go Super Cena/Boy Scout babyface to show contrition and get the fans back.  And if they're going to take cinematic influence (as they've clearly borrowed liberally from for stories in this recent Mania), they could draw from GoT and allow babyface Roman to be akin to a less emo Jon Snow - in terms of rightful place at the top of the table but ultimately not wanting it, but that not meaning he doesn't have a duty to fix the fecal storm that he started/enabled that's not gotten out of control (be that Rock, Solo, both).

[Texansfan713]

34 minutes ago, MikeT14 said:

I don't watch all the time, I just catch up through articles and watch the big PPVs. So I thought I heard Roman was better in that sense, but maybe not. 

He is.  I was going to post this.  It might be a hot take but Roman dont need Paul on the mic anymore.  He has improved greatly. 

[Fresh Prince]

Braun was also here this weekend for specific WWE wrestler events. I think he shows up tonight.

[Dr LBC]

37 minutes ago, Fresh Prince said:

Braun was also here this weekend for specific WWE wrestler events. I think he shows up tonight.

I think Braun's best role at this point due to his injury-history and the uniquieness of his size is as a gatekeeper (to borrow from MMA parlance).  He can afford to take losses to the right guys and it's not going to bury him.  And the way that you can get other big-to-biggish guys over as monsters is to have them go over other monsters (the recent Oba Femi/Dijack feud in NXT is a prime example).  If they're not going to go straight return match against Drew for Priest, I don't think it does anything but help Priest to have his first defense be against Strowman and have him go over.

One, in the lead up you can give the fan service of a Braun/JD or Braun/Dominik match where either or both JD guys gets obliterated - you want to make Dom even more insufferable, you have him beat Braun but only after Judgment Day prison assaults him and a nearly unconscious Dom is drug over Braun's body for the 3-count.  And then you have Braun put Priest over clean to re-establish Priest as more of a legit monster big man at the PLE.

Braun eating a loss to another big man who is also the (#2) Heavyweight champion doesn't hurt him or kill his heat - especially coming back off injury.

[Rainmaker90]

That segment took 45 minutes… my god.

[beekay414]