All Things Wrestling Thread

[Superman(DH23)]

On 11/14/2018 at 12:29 PM, The LBC said:

My only issue is that, at least my suspicion is, this DB heel run is going to be damn near carbon-copy of Gargano's heel turn currently going on in NXT, which would be fine if they weren't going on at the exact same time with extremely similar characters.

Vince always uses Survivor Series as a jumping-off point to at least one or two Wrestlemania storylines and my bet one of those was/is supposed to be DB/Shane (none of us want to see that - especially with the fact that Bryan has a history of concussion issues and Shane throws the crappiest working punches and potatoes just about every opponent he faces).

Why the hell would they do that? They should be setting up a match with Miz for the belt.  And Bryan should put Miz waaaaay over.

[Dr LBC]

1 hour ago, Superman(DH23) said:

Why the hell would they do that? They should be setting up a match with Miz for the belt.  And Bryan should put Miz waaaaay over.

Because it's Wrestlemania and therefore as many McMahons as possible must be featured on the show.  WWE Logic = McMahons sell, people want to see the McMahons.  And the sad thing is, because Wrestlemania is very much about the casual fans, the casual fans are hype as hell to see Shane in the ring because it harks back to the Attitude Era.

Also, Miz isn't going over for squat at Mania unless he's a babyface.

[Dr LBC]

I will say that if... if Vince and the producers give DB carte blanche to promo as he wants as a heel and we get ROH/"I'm just plain better than you" heel Bryan Danielson then this can be a good thing for Bryan, because that character was great.

[Superman(DH23)]

7 minutes ago, The LBC said:

Because it's Wrestlemania and therefore as many McMahons as possible must be featured on the show.  WWE Logic = McMahons sell, people want to see the McMahons.  And the sad thing is, because Wrestlemania is very much about the casual fans, the casual fans are hype as hell to see Shane in the ring because it harks back to the Attitude Era.

Also, Miz isn't going over for squat at Mania unless he's a babyface.

Well they are turning him face, so maybe that's the plan, but I want a heel Miz title run hes so good at injecting bits of truth into his promos they seem like shoots.  I mean they had everybody convinced that the smack talk segment was real.  His stuff with the bellas was great.  I'd dare say Miz is the best thing snack down has going not named AJ Styles.

[Dr LBC]

1 minute ago, Superman(DH23) said:

Well they are turning him face, so maybe that's the plan, but I want a heel Miz title run hes so good at injecting bits of truth into his promos they seem like shoots.  I mean they had everybody convinced that the smack talk segment was real.  His stuff with the bellas was great.  I'd dare say Miz is the best thing snack down has going not named AJ Styles.

And then you'd either not been watching Becky Lynch or you'd just plainly be wrong.  

And we have no evidence that they're "turning Miz face" - he's getting babyface responses from the crowd, but that doesn't mean they're turning him face.  Honestly, he's probably very heavily up in the air because he's going to be one of those guys moved off of Smackdown and onto RAW once Smackdown moves to FOX because FOX has been adamant about wanting to present more as an actual "sports" program and that's not Miz's shtick and actually runs contrary to Miz's character (he's the consummate "entertainer" part of "sports entertainer")

[pwny]

If Miz and Bryan don’t go at it during Wrestlemania, what is the point of this 5 year feud?

[Dr LBC]

22 minutes ago, pwny said:

If Miz and Bryan don’t go at it during Wrestlemania, what is the point of this 5 year feud?

Normally, I'd agree, but people keep assuming Vince gives a crap about continuity.  Continuity was set fire to long ago in WWE.

Now, granted, it looks like they've rebooted A TON of Mania plans at this point given the Roman illness and, from the sound of things, the genuinely questionable situation moving forward with Lesnar (I believe it was Meltzer that was on about Braun/Brock not being the plan for Mania and instead we're probably going to get it at Rumble instead); now that could be that Vince is finally get his mega-boner match he's been jonesing for for almost 20 years and get Rock/Brock or who really knows at this point.  But Alvarez was also saying that backstage they've cooled on Braun for some unconfirmed reason (could be his knee problems he's battling through right now, could be that despite his size Vince doesn't see him as a "the guy" type - which when your character is basically a cartoony version of Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds can't say as I don't get that - but still blame Vince for it, could also be that Roman was one of Braun's biggest advocates backstage as they're actually pretty good friends).

Smart booking would say you seize on this organic Austin-like anti-hero heat Becky has and you legit book her as Austin with Shane as Vince (since Shane has no issue putting people over and taking comeuppance on the regular), and you let Becky be the first one to beat Ronda in the actual Main Event of Mania after having the SD title stripped from her by Shane (use the 30 day clause that they only sporadically actually enforce), having the odds stacked against her, regularly one-upping Shane, then winning the Women's Rumble and crossing brands to finally challenge Ronda.  And then you turn Ronda the next night with the full Four Horsewomen brought up from NXT and you've got programming that can carry you, bare minimum, till Summer Slam and likely to next year's Survivor Series.

More likely Vince booking is going to give us either a Brock/Rock, Taker/Shawn (Taker's retirement/going out on his shield), or some other 'the old guys up top" Main Event to a blown-out crowd because the real main event will have gone on two matches before.

I highly doubt it happens or that they come, but if there was ever a time for Vince to take that Saudi money and that FOX money and back up the Brinks truck to the doors of Omega and the Bucks this is it, because if used right (and knowing what I know of Kenny, Matt, and Nick they're not coming without some assurances that if they see the opportunity to take the ball and run with it on something, they'll be allowed at least the opportunity to fall on their faces) they could do a world of difference for RAW.

[Dr LBC]

All that said, I think, long-term, they're doing the smart thing on RAW - it's just being done so slowly that I'm not sure people are picking up on it - or so slowly that people are just plain unhappy with the speed it's going and that the trigger just isn't pulled now.

RAW needs a good mega-heel.  Right now the biggest heel is Steph when she's not trying to play Company-Steph-who-also-wants-to-be-in-the-spotlight-for-all-the-giving-stuffs.  Past that it's Corbin whose mic work is quickly moving him to the point where he's precariously close to X-Pac heat, where people just want him to go away.  They're building Drew the right way.  And yes, he's "credible" right now, but they need to give him the time to actually do the acts to really establish himself as a sonnuvabitch heel; once he gets there you've got a heel Hunter or heel/Legend Killer Orton type of character you can build multiple babyfaces off the shoulders of (not because they initially get over on him, but because they go up against him, get knocked down, come back, get knocked down again, and finally have to leave it all on the table to beat him).

I'd argue you have to put Drew over as a dominant bastard universal Champion before you can put the belt on Seth with any real hope of Seth being able to be "the guy."  And you're going to have to sacrifice several more fan favorites (which some fans will no doubt call "burying") by letting Drew go over them decisively (possibly using their own finishes like he did with Angle).  I'd even go so far as to say that when KO comes back as a babyface (and he will, at least initially, it'll be like when Hunter came back from the first quad-tear), you let him go on a tear and then let Drew be the one to beat him back down.  We're probably going to get something similar to this after Survivor Series with Drew going over and decimating Finn (I just hope for Finn's sake that they don't have Drew also conquer the demon unless they follow that up with an eventual heel turn for Balor).

[Troy Brown]

Man, I have not watched any WWE in the last 6 weeks or so but catching up on the Becky Lynch RAW invasion stuff...  man, when WWE gets something right, they really get it right. They really have something in this Lynch stuff 

[The Gnat]

12 hours ago, Troy Brown said:

Man, I have not watched any WWE in the last 6 weeks or so but catching up on the Becky Lynch RAW invasion stuff...  man, when WWE gets something right, they really get it right. They really have something in this Lynch stuff 

If you check out her twitter, it's amazing.

[Fresh Prince]

You dont need to be "the guy" to get a title run. Dont see why they cant just give Braun a 3 month run with the belt. Poor exscuse.

Edited November 16, 2018 by Fresh Prince

[Troy Brown]

I do think it's funny that Becky frickin Lynch, the woman I thought was as bland as coors light for the entirety of her career up until this recent run, is the most over person in the company. This is the reaction they wanted Rousey to get. It's gonna be a fun ride, I hope they do headline WM with Rousey and Lynch. Give em 20 mins and let that house burrrrnNNNnn

[Troy Brown]

On 11/15/2018 at 4:35 PM, The LBC said:

Normally, I'd agree, but people keep assuming Vince gives a crap about continuity.  Continuity was set fire to long ago in WWE.

Now, granted, it looks like they've rebooted A TON of Mania plans at this point given the Roman illness and, from the sound of things, the genuinely questionable situation moving forward with Lesnar (I believe it was Meltzer that was on about Braun/Brock not being the plan for Mania and instead we're probably going to get it at Rumble instead); now that could be that Vince is finally get his mega-boner match he's been jonesing for for almost 20 years and get Rock/Brock or who really knows at this point.  But Alvarez was also saying that backstage they've cooled on Braun for some unconfirmed reason (could be his knee problems he's battling through right now, could be that despite his size Vince doesn't see him as a "the guy" type - which when your character is basically a cartoony version of Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds can't say as I don't get that - but still blame Vince for it, could also be that Roman was one of Braun's biggest advocates backstage as they're actually pretty good friends).

Smart booking would say you seize on this organic Austin-like anti-hero heat Becky has and you legit book her as Austin with Shane as Vince (since Shane has no issue putting people over and taking comeuppance on the regular), and you let Becky be the first one to beat Ronda in the actual Main Event of Mania after having the SD title stripped from her by Shane (use the 30 day clause that they only sporadically actually enforce), having the odds stacked against her, regularly one-upping Shane, then winning the Women's Rumble and crossing brands to finally challenge Ronda.  And then you turn Ronda the next night with the full Four Horsewomen brought up from NXT and you've got programming that can carry you, bare minimum, till Summer Slam and likely to next year's Survivor Series.

More likely Vince booking is going to give us either a Brock/Rock, Taker/Shawn (Taker's retirement/going out on his shield), or some other 'the old guys up top" Main Event to a blown-out crowd because the real main event will have gone on two matches before.

I highly doubt it happens or that they come, but if there was ever a time for Vince to take that Saudi money and that FOX money and back up the Brinks truck to the doors of Omega and the Bucks this is it, because if used right (and knowing what I know of Kenny, Matt, and Nick they're not coming without some assurances that if they see the opportunity to take the ball and run with it on something, they'll be allowed at least the opportunity to fall on their faces) they could do a world of difference for RAW.

I imagine they'd have to run a work shoot type of anti wwe angle with the elite if they were to jump ship but where do you think this kind of stuff lands on the likely scale? I know we've heard talk about the elite moving together when they do but I feel like Cody Rhodes is going back to WWE with or without them and the american nightmare gimmick would be a+++++ on the main event scene

[Troy Brown]

17 hours ago, The Gnat said:

If you check out her twitter, it's amazing.

GOD HELP THEM ALL WHEN I GET OFF THIS LEASH 

[Dr LBC]

10 hours ago, Troy Brown said:

I imagine they'd have to run a work shoot type of anti wwe angle with the elite if they were to jump ship but where do you think this kind of stuff lands on the likely scale? I know we've heard talk about the elite moving together when they do but I feel like Cody Rhodes is going back to WWE with or without them and the american nightmare gimmick would be a+++++ on the main event scene

I'd give it about a 2% chance unless Vince has some sort of debilitating stroke or makes the decision to go off and wholly focus on the XFL (which, yeah, is still happening; they signed a deal with Optimum Scouting to scout players for their league this week) which are both highly unlikely.  It's the whole, Vince being massively hesitant to push - especially into top positions - guys he didn't make.  But I also feel like, unlike Hunter does some Bruno whispering type stuff again, the relationship between WWE and  the Jacksons isn't that great and Vince would probably look at them the say way he does Finn... "wait a minute, you mean they're THAT small?"

Cody, I'm starting to think more and more is the least likely to come back.  He doesn't need the money.  And I think at this point he's seen that he and Vince don't see eye to eye on A LOT of stuff.  Cody was extremely vocal about his disapproval of the Saudi Arabia stuff and the way WWE handled it and my bet is that he wouldn't come back unless he felt like he had an advocate with some legitimate stroke and not just someone who was going to placate him to his face and cowtow to Vince behind closed doors.  I also think this most recent injury (tearing his meniscus) is going to put something in perspective for Cody (because he's always been a "looking out for the boys" sort of guy), that he really doesn't want to work the WWE schedule (which is getting worse).

Do I think there's going to be an offer made?  Absolutely.  But I think it's going to be more of what you'd naturally expect from Vince, mostly just an attempt to buy out the main stars to keep someone else from running a show at the Garden, especially on Mania Weekend.  And it'll probably be completely transparent because Vince is massively arrogant like that.