what's the name of the repo ? I have the Network but have a hard time finding NJPW and ROH lately

Maybe it's just me but I am way over both Lesnar and Reigns. They need to take a break from those guys - I know Lesnar is a legit badass, but he's BORING! The best program he's had in years was with Goldberg - and mostly because he let Goldberg go over a couple times. That was amazing. But Reigns... eegh.... come on. I thought it was going to be Strowman/Lesnar this year though -

Miz continues to (inexplicably!) be the best/worst heel in years. he's such a toad! He's no Flair in the ring but his mic skills are best on the roster.

Anybody know if the Dolph thing will pan out? Did he really leave or, what's going on w/ that?

I really really really don't see Reigns as a replacement for Cena. He's a GREAT worker, and he obviously does exactly what he's told, and he's good at it. But that may also be the problem a bit. It seems like you have to have a little wild streak to really get over. Everybody's onto Roman as the heir apparent and that seems to be backfiring. But he's not bad or anything, like I said, great worker. But no Cena. He's got no depth, I am not feeling the superman punch either. That STILL looks dumb as hell. My thing with Roman is just I feel like they're wasting guys who are clearly better.

Lesnar.. time is up on that.

AJ Styles is a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar better worker, has a better entrance, much more exciting matches, gets psychology, knows how to sell (!! Roman needs to work on this). But he's not a big man. ugh...

Anyway, taking my son on the 27th in Baltimore to a house show, day before the Rumble, so we'll see the setup matches.

that is awesome, thank you!

You'll be able to get a free month in March; they always like to bump up the subscriber base during WM

NICE!!! IF they ever do a PPV in Washington, DC we may end there -

Man thanks for mentioning FirePro world - I forgot about that. I can’t wait to catch up on NJPW - the Jericho/Omega Match was brutal, and the rest of the wrestle kingdom 12 card was great, I want to watch more

Lol! I think Lance is focused on his wrestling school and Killin The Town with the Jackyl!

So.. uh .. do you speak Japanese?

Oh! Wow, lol! Well that will be easier to understand! Yeah I think it’s Don Callis right? Or is it JR? I can’t keep up

W.T.F. How long was that match?

I am going to watch that right now

That really sucks - add her to the list of injured-by-the-latest-generation. Not that I blame Sasha but man it’s weird there are so many career-ending injuries lately. Sting comes to mind.

I wonder if it’s more care in the part of the doctors, or less work on the neck in the gym? Or something else, like a change in the rules
Like the NFL?

From a storyline perspective, I don’t know why they SHOULDNT have an off season. Have a R/S “east” and “west” roster. Then you can give the wrestlers a couple months off, and if somebody gets hurt, you call up somebody whose currently off. It wouldn’t be any worse than a surprise injury now, and gives a little more structure to what now is just a big mess with no rules.

Wait - the rd Reynolds here is the Wrestlecrap guy? I would love
To shake his hand

Mind blown. That is incredibly cool! That site got me through the doldrums of the post-Monday Night Wars!

I listen to the "talk is jericho" and Stone Cold podcasts, and occasionally Jim Ross's (while one of the greatest announcers of all time, he isn't as great of a conversationalist!) Stone Cold, on the other hand - is a phenomenal interviewer. I also am poring through Jim Cornette's HILARIOUS interviews/commentaries. Even if you don't agree with what he said (and I'm finding more and more that I pretty much do agree, given some thought), he says everything in such a hilarious way they are gold mines. Check it out on Youtube. He offends everyone with equal measure

Thinking about it. It’s not that much, the roster of wrestlers is great! The rosters of Rock guys... eh..

I must be listening to the shorter ones mostly, the majority of it is wrestling content, although I don’t mind the politics (I live in DC after all). He gets so pissed off about pretty much everything, it is hilariois

100% agree with all of this. My son got me Daniel Bryan’s book for Christmas, and while it (really really) isn’t the most well-written book, the story is interesting. It’s written in Daniel’s voice and he talks a LOT about his lack of ambition while in ROH and before, just wanting to have good matches but not be the top guy. Then when he hits WWE something changes, and it’s clear they saw something in him. He specifically noted that Vince gave him a LOT of opportunities to improve before they really put him out there. They knew what they were doing with him all along, it seems. Or at least that’s what the book implies.

My son LOVES Roman, so I try to be careful what I say about him - but yeah the Superman punch.. ugh.. I think if they would just change the name to something else, it wouldn't be quite so awful. I don't mind the spear, it is visually impressive. I dont think anybody does it better than Goldberg (even Edge!) but it's a great on-camera move.

Lucha Underground I am really enjoying - but I do feel like the matches can seem more like acrobatic contests than moves. Ricochet in particular - he's amazing in the ring, but good lord, SELL every once in a while! Lucha Libre has always been more about spots than psychology, but they do sell the moves - there's no excuse on Lucha Underground where it's all taped anyway. That said, I really think it's a super innovative way to do wrestling. They have RULES! And time limits! And they count falls! Holy crap! Those changes alone would give the WWE guys so much more to work with...

Yep, makes a lot of sense. Again, ROH has rules (except Fight with no Honor, I guess). That is key to developing meaningful athletic-based storylines. How do you cheat if there are no rules?! WWE has the infrastructure to just bowl people over, and they are rewriting history - it's not wrestling, it's "sports entertainment." But they're even doing a crap job at that.

Funny, Daniel Bryan covers that in his book - he cut a promo when he was starting out (I think right before the Nexus program) and said something like "Yeah, Daniel Bryan is new, he's lost every one of his WWE matches... he doesn't have anything on Youtube. But if you look up BRYAN DANIELSON, that guy is huge!" Apparently Vince was pissed. But then he liked it so they ran with that. Then he fired him anyway after the Nexus angle because Bryan spit in Cena's face

Whoops, sorry - and that. The strangling and the spit. He said Vince fired him personally (over the phone), and sounded like he basically didn't' want to do it, but they had just gone public and they needed to show they were serious about the PG thing. This is a WWE book after all, so who knows how much of this is legit.

It specifically says in the book that it was the choking with the tie *and* that he spit in Cena's face. And apparently Vince loved the choking. AND they didn't tell Roberts he was going to choke him.. lol. Hey we made the thread go on fire!

LOL!!

Think there will be any surprises? They are advertising Austin, Flair, Undertaker. I think the Rock is almost a guarantee but he comes back so often, I hope they don't let him take over the whole place. Austin really needs an outstanding return, and Undertaker may break kayfabe who knows. He's gotta be done, right?

I think Hogan is still on the outs. There was an official/non-official statement categorically denying he would be there. They don't usually just lie, so I doubt we'll see him. I don't think as many people really associate him with RAW as much as Stone Cold, Rock, Mankind, HHH, DX, etc. I DO hope Sting will be there. He's of course not a "RAW guy" but it's not like they're going to do a 25th for Nitro...

That would be over the top cool. I re-watched his match with Roman from WM. And I get Roman is a great worker, that was a long match. But I don't think it was really that *good*. Taker was going out, and there was no way for Roman to get out from under that heat, but the match itself should have been a showstopper. It should have been Cena. Too many of the top guys are known to be part timers.

I agree too; SM seems kind of tired of it too, and they’ve obviously changed as people, it was kinda fun but a little empty. I was pretty sure that Scott Hall was on something too; as a guy who funded a quarter of his hip surgery, that made me a little sad.

The 8-woman tag match was pretty good (adult/mickie/barley/Sasha weRE CLEARLY the better team). The Asuka crazy turn at the end was MONEY!!

I’d really like to see it on Joe, who is also a tremendous heel, but since he’s on the injury list I guess we keep waiting. They have totally wasted Nakamura since he started

Surprise entrance by Taker? That would at least.. sort of... explain his weird promo at the 25th.

Killer wrestle mania. If you want a preview, check out Wrestle Kingdom 10

The Rumble itself was booked VERY well. The Heath Slater recurring gag was pretty funny, and he got to eliminate Sheamus; probably more TV time than Slater's had in a year! And Rey's return... holy crap that was stunning. He must have the best knee surgeon in the world. Up until the last minute I thought it was going to be Cena or Roman... again... but Nakamura winning, and then Asuka... those were outstanding matches. The rest of the card... eh...

I heard from Meltzer that last night was a one-off, AND they only did the deal in the past week so it was a secret. but they (WWE) are open to doing more. So not an official source but as close as you can get lately. He could definitely be used in the cruiser weight division! Even as a GM perhaps. After the tragedy with el Hijo del Pedro Aguayo, it was a little uncomfortable seeing him hit that first 619, but he ran and rolled and hurricanrana’d everybody so smoothly it was like no time had passed!

It was obviously a receipt for the knee - you could hear Brock say “calm the F Down!!” Braun is still pretty green, but I find it funny that Brock was so pissed off getting hit, haha

It really is, although the cruiser weights continue to have some of the best matches I’ve ever seen. This is shocking given the incredible amount of talent on the main roster. WWE really needs a WCW-level threat to get them creative again. I fully believe they can do attitude-quality storylines with PG-era rules, but they’re just not trying. All the wrestlers now also have to be great actors and read their lines to perfection, whereas in the past they were able to improv a lot of their stuff, which led to all the breakout phrases and chants. Guys coming up with their own stuff really made things take off like a rocket.

My understanding is now that guys just don’t take it as seriously as they used to. It’s just a job, it’s not their whole life. I’m not advocating that that’s a healthy thing, but I think it may be why WWE feels
Compelled to write everything down and micromanage everything.

NJPW is indeed awesome, but they won’t be a real threat until they change their contracting policy -

She's not a wrestler yet - I fully agree, she is green as grass. Hoping and expecting she gets better at it though. I felt the signing of her contract was well done, but it seemed clear to me that a lot of that was real emotion. She's got that 'it' factor though, so if she gets a bit better at the acting - and doesn't hurt anybody- she'll make it far. Angle is the easiest example of somebody who figured it out, but for every Angle (and Mark Henry!) there are 1,000 Mr T's and Mike Tysons, etc.

Well Brock appears to be leaving - she would explode if they put her with Heyman. He'll teach her a ton too

The angle they are running where Brock is half-assing and no-showing house shows is interesting; it’s at least semi-creative for once. I do not think it will get Roman more over. But when Brock actually leaves maybe that allows AJ to come in as the top heel. Or SOMETHING. They are wasting so much amazing talent between Finn, AJ, even KO. And Braun Strowman is a great attraction - they really should keep him doing funny stuff and lighten up a touch on the ridiculous feats of strength. He’s getting over huge, because him and Elias (what happened to Cena?!) have great chemistry. I still think he’s green but he will get there

My son watched the end of elimination chamber last night, and he is starting to sour on Ronan a bit; he could hear the boos. he thinks for a minute and says “Roman should go up and say I’m sorry I ended the undertsker’s career, I didn’t want to. I wanted him to stay forever too. But Brock beat him first, and I am going to make sure Brock never comes back around here again. I’m dedicating my match to Undertaker.”

I almost choked on my dinner. He’s 8, that is genius.

Hard to argue - I really think they should go back to letting guys talk for themselves. There will be some stinkers out there but embarassing yourself on live TV will make somebody GET BETTER. Right now they all have the crutch which is the word-by-word scripts written. They have 5 minutes learn a promo, and hardly any time to figure out how to 'act' so everybody just spits out the words and there's no dynamics to the show. I'm all in favor of somebody else taking the reins. Hey I hear Cornette isn't doing much lately!

That was awesome. Smackdown needed a boost and boy did they get it! And Shane leaving is probably a good thing. Now if they can just get rid of Stephanie...

What do you all think? Shane is back now, will he double-cross Daniel Bryan after their big hug?

My money is on the stage 2 Sasha vs Bayley kicking off during the battle royale

Should AJ vs Shinsuke be the final match? It will be for me, I have no interest in seeing Brock 2002 again. LOLRomanWins. Hope it’s not UnderBiker vs Cena

I was thinking about Taker’s return, and I bet Cena pushed for it backstage, wanting to add one more notch to Taker’s belt. I can’t see Vince wanting Biker taker over Deadman, but Kid Rock is going into the HOF (whyyyy????) so it does seem most likely. I’d mark out for the gong. Perhaps the Raw 30 thing was him retiring the Deadman gimmick but not himself entirely? Not sure if that’s a good move.

Anyway, that would be an awesome closer.

No way in the world is DB going to turn heel. They barely have any true babyfaces right now - everybody’s a tweeter. I always thought PG-era should be cut and dry who’s a heel and who’s a face. But everybody wants to be the Outsiders. Even frickin’ Roman! To me, he comes off selfish, with the “this is my yard now”. That’s not what works as a babyface, because there’s no underdog. he needs some more humanity (run in and save Seth from a beat down) so people get behind him.

That just reminded me about Dean - hope he makes an appearance, his injury should be just about up

No, Rey is still hurt. Torn bicep, I think. He had to drop out of a NJPW show, so it appears to be legit.

Even though it makes no sense, I would be all for Braun somehow tagging himself in as “Brains” Strowman during the match. That was funny as hell.

My money’s on Big Show. “The New Twin Towers!”

Hope Cass can hang now that his little remora Enzo is gone. I suspect he may get lost in the shuffle. Hopefully they repackage him or something.

The Mower of Lawns!!

This is genius. Braun is the next Roman (edit: I mean he’s next on top and the big kid magnet), and he should be. He’s way more fun, has a GREAT sense of humor (Brains Strowman, plus all the appearances he did on Instagram riding roller coasters, his podcast with Jericho and Gallows/Anderson. Now there’s a great stable for ya)

My son had to go to bed before the Nicholas match but I can’t wait to show him

It’s been conventional wisdom that Braun is the next big thing, but this seals the deal. He’s believably tough, can take a mean punch (Brock’s receipt) and FUNNY. How do you not like him? If you’re funny and a little guy, you’re a “comedy character” (Santino). If you’re big and funny when appropriate - you’re printing money. The smarks like him because he still puts on good matches, the kids like him because DUH, and he still cracks a smile so he’s not a impenetrably dark. I assume all this means the writers are actually writing him this way, which is by a mile the main reason he’s next.

I still think they can get Roman over by having him lose -more- His promo on Raw was going the right way - he almost moved on, he was upset, that was great.

THEN they tried to pull the “I don’t know what’s going on huh Brock re-signed?!?! I didn’t know I didn’t know. I’ll still beat him guys. “. Ugggggghhhh... he must still sell a lot of shirts otherwise this makes no business sense as well as story sense.

I really feel like that wasn’t helped by the length of the show. 7 hours?! The arena is waaay dead by hour 4. Just because Vince doesn’t sleep doesn’t mean crowds don’t get tired. They were quiet for most of AJ/Shinsuke which shocked me. Draft next.

Special event paid for by the Saudi Arabian royal family, which they will brand as a Network Exclusive . Kinda makes sense ... not sure if this will finally be the end for Brock or what.. 50 guys though. How do you book that?!

I'm sure it's going to be big $$. I just read in Jericho's 3rd book how they did a short tour in China and most of the dates the arenas only had a few fans, because the government bought up all the tickets and only doled them out to a few people. They made serious $$ on those shows. This one they get to do the live thing in a big arena, sell tickets, AND put it on the network as an exclusive. I assume more subscribers is the idea. More subscribers = more $$$

Going to hang out with him in a couple weeks!!!

You know it! Got one with him and my son from this summer (I look like a total dork). My kid is holding the King's crown with the biggest smile on his face

I heard Lanny made an appearance - what does he look like these days?

It’s inexplicable but ROH has -always- had this issue. Their merch is kind of the Wild West. Some of it is the venue - the venues are permanently set up to sell beer and food, and merch is the big long table and bigger longer lines where everything is kinda slow. Even the last WWE house show we went to in Baltimore was like that a bit (although significantly better run.) ROH would be smart to step their game up in the merch department now that they’ve got everyone’s attention.

Don Callis! He used to be called “The Jackal” in WWE. And Cyrus the Virus in (I think?) ECW. Booked for TNA for a hot minute, good friend of Jericho too from back in the day. He has a great podcast with Lance Storm where they relentlessly rib each other, it’s called “killing the town”

That’s a good thing. Monday night wars.

I bet it’s even higher than that - that’s a good payday for a great year, but HBK is a major real estate investor now - 1.5M May not Be enough to get him off the ranch. Hope he doesn’t get hurt against Undertaker and Kane. Lord, hopefully none of them get hurt! lol

I am taking my son to Smackdown 1000 in DC, which should be unforgettable

Come on, guys, you’re gonna lower my stock value! Haha

same here kinda, they just seem directionless and there’s this bizarre whiplash effect from certain feuds changing on a dime, and then we have the OMG IS IT GOING TO BE ROMAN AGAIN?!? Which never seems to end.

Don’t get me wrong, I think roman is awesome -when he is with the shield -
But by himself and the Brock feud.. give me a break. Those guys are being hurt a little bit by the PPVs being so long but man it’s just boring as hell. Even Braun is starting to get a little of that stink on him. It’s time to change it up. IMO Braun was killing when he was allowed to be funny. Now he’s just another huge angry guy with absolutely no story. They can do better than this

Then you have the whole drew/ziggler vs Ambrose / Rollins, which is a GREAT feud. Thats giving it a little juice putting Braun in there, but I’m sure they’ll mess it up as usual

That said, I like the network because of all the old stuff on there, and the occasional new program they do every 6 months.. I love the Legends table episodes where they sit around and discuss stuff, that is my favorite show of all. I wish they’d do more of that

Totally agree. They have the PPVs every month now, and they are basically cramming in 2 PPVs of story. WM was like 7 hours this year! Maybe a bit much. I shut it off before the Main Event, and gee it had the exact outcome I expected.

I will say that Brock coming out at the end of HIAC was TOTALLY not on my radar - that was good. The match wasn't really, but those guys aren't wrestling, that's just a power punch show

When is the crown royal
Thing? Saudi royal family basically looking like organized crime right now.

Wow, I had to go look that up. That Suuuuuucks. I didn’t love the character nor the push, but there’s no denying he’s a bad ass performer.

What happened? I missed the last 20 minutes

Wtf

After that roman announcement? Will be interesting to see how this plays out

Wow, that is saying something. I feel like if they were that shocked, they haven’t been paying attention, since WWE has been teasing Dean’s turn since he came back.

Maybe people figured they wouldn’t do it because of Roman’s Announcement. Kinda makes sense though - the Shield is no more without Roman anyway, and now we know who headlines Wrestlemania

I was thinking about this the other day.. since basically every guy is in WWE now, there’s very few surprise announcements and run-ins, debuts that can happen any more. What was the last huge debut? AJ, I think. And he’s been on fire since he started - but who else? Vince has put everybody else out of business, so there’s nowhere for anybody to grow, except at the Performanxe Center, and then we all know 2 years in advance.

Cody is the only other star I can think of who would come (back) in, and take over like that.

Interesting, I didn’t watch the whole show but it sounds like this was one of the 10 “good” RAWs of the year! We attended Smackdown 1000 last week and that was a truly awesome show - I’m not sure what ended up on tv but man they went all out, and there were 5 matches after the show went off the air, all of which were killer, (Becky /Charlotte was the main event, which was really good for a dark match). They also did 2 mixed match challenge matches which were great.

Really good suggestions - I’ve followed NJPW for a while now, but getting to actually watch it lately is a whole different experience. I’ve not been able to find ROH but I’ll try harder.

Awesome, thanks!! I don’t mind the WWE soap opera most of the time, but the creative has been SO BAD for quite a while, i am basically not watching RAW any more and only watch smackdown occasionally so we can actually see some wrestling. This seems like it will help with that!

Yep that’s exactly what I’m doing. I am on the fence about cancelling the Network though, yes because of Crown royal . I started out as a journalist so not to bring politics in, but it really bothers me that US companies are taking SO much money from that regime, and that Linda is part of the president’s cabinet. That does not seem right. But ae’ll See what happens with the sanctions. Anyway, sorry - wrestling:

Yes! I do also wish they would go back to some of the round table shows they did on the old WWE 24/7 channel. 10 or so legends sitting around talking about different topics. Those are in “the vault” but they are the best non-in-ring shows on the network!

LOL. 1) that is hilarious, and 2) I can’t see Stone Cold coming back; he always says he’s done on his podcasts - (although that pop at Raw 25...)

Damn, yep you are right. Maybe Broken Skull IPA needs a cash infusion .. haha

ALL the guys are really past their prime. It’s funny though - Hogan is WAY older than these guys and he was still carrying matches at their age. I mean he’s not a technician by any means but nobody cared. Hell, Flair was still going at 60! I am as big a mark for Taker and HBK as anybody, but ..yeah no.

The last rumor I saw was somewhere in the U.K. . Not sure if that was substantive or if it was just because “Crown” Jewel

1,000% agree

I don't usually watch Raw because I tend to have stuff going on Mondays, or I'm working or whatever. But I put it on the other night for the first time live in like, 3-4 years. OH MY GOD. I couldn't make it 45 minutes. That had to be one of the all-time stinkers.

My son's favorite wrestlers are Finn, Rey and AJ. He's seen all 3 live, and we watch Smackdown a lot, but I can't bring myself to let him see Finn lose so often on Raw. Seriously, WTF would have happened if he hadn't torn his arm in that championship match with Seth?

That would be brilliant - Lucha Underground proved the more traditional episodic stuff works. I’m on the fence about Kenny. He should prob stick with AEW. In WWE he’d get lost or neutered.

Have they posted who's actually in it? I'm thinking Braun will win, or Cena as a "surprise" after his questionable injury. Braun will most certainly interrupt the Brock/Balor match, which pisses me off quite a bit. I am just so tired of Brock, and I'm high on Braun, but his character has gotten stale. Raw is supposed to be the flagship show but it's like they NEVER have their shit together.

For the rumble winners? Or did you mean for the belts?

I absolutely hope Finn pulls off an upset. I’m sure it would have to be with Braun’s assistance, but that’s what we get in this day and age.

The Vince booking of “BIG MAN SO MUST WIN!” is so stale, and robs the audience of an -actual- underdog .. despite the overtures to such storylines to M. Ali and Daniel Bryan circa 2015.

Anyway I am super tired of Brock, who has basically no charisma - I would be 100% behind him if this was UFC.. but it’s not. IMO The belts should be on AJ/Daniel (good job Smackdown) and Finn / Seth. And Becky / Asuka. Charlotte is an amazing talent too but they need to let her cool off. The office shoving people down our throats is continuing to backfire, especially with all the AEW buzz.

That said, when Roman returns.. holy hell things will erupt. EVERYONE wants to see him come back, even if you hated him originally. Shield reunion, done. Top of the world. But let’s get him a little better on the stick too..

This is really bad - I super hope it’s a work, but I think we all know it’s not. If he leaves and succeeds in AEW (I mean, duh thats where he’s going), expect to see KO and Sami who are not getting good creative. Actually, I mean who really is? I’m all for HHH taking over now. They are trying to do too much and not doing a good job at any of it -

Becky is over because Becky. Asuka is doing amazing on her own, but the stupid booking is killing her. I can’t even think of someone on the men’s roster who has an interesting story happening.

My god, my 9 year old asked me about 100 times if I thought Finn was going to win against Brock, and I told him the truth. And he STILL got upset - I mean crying. I have never seen this kid cry, since the 2nd time he broke his leg, and he was 4 then. (Long story, he’s an active dude). That made me go from “losing interest WWE fan” to “angry dad WWE fan”. How are they going to keep people engaged? There’s only so many times I can talk about the glory days.

Good points - I suppose I meant that it was "really bad for WWE"; agree that competition is needed. Good advice re: Finn as well; we did talk about him showing he's a top guy almost going the distance. It's just bad luck though that EVERY match we've seen at house shows and PPVs he's lost. Finn is his favorite wrestler along with AJ (he is very impressed that Finn trained Becky), but it's getting tough.

quick story - we've run into the King a bunch of times, and recently he stopped and talked to my son for a bit. He was very generous with his time, and we told him we'd recently hung out at his joint in Memphis. The King then asks my son "so... who's your favorite wrestler?" My kid answers "AJ Styles!" I have never seen a grown man turn on a dime and just freeze up. END of conversation. LOL!

And they have a lot longer to prepare too, less pressure for RATINGS!! Ratings!!

That was a great match - boosted everybody IMO, and made it clear Dream has got the rocket strapped to him.

I think they could have done. 2 matches, but the way they booked that got a lot More deserving guys time to show their stuff. I was sports entertained.

I am thinking more and more I wish WWE would do a true brand split - like no contact whatsoever, different news, don’t bring anybody together until WM, and do a brand draft -every 6 months-. If people don’t get drafted, it gives them some time off, allows a comeback story, etc. Maybe somebody gets hurt and they have to call somebody up to replace them. You know, like actual sports work.

That’s also way less time to write, it brings back damn RULES, they can officially make rule changes like NFL does. People always dissect that stuff for weeks. Then figure out a way for heels to break those rules to win.

1000% agree! Why is this not already a thing? They could build new stars this way, and the returning wrestler gets a boost from being off tv. Win-win. Especially since now they are doing this “WWE brand is the star” thing, they don’t seem to care about the individuals (hence why Dean is leaving apparently), but haven’t figured out how to make that entertaining. they are adopting all this other hollywood stuff, not letting guys do their own promos, why not make it easier on the writers??

Is that a real
Photo of the dumbass? He got annihilated by Travis Browne and Dash wilder. I’ve been thinking Travis Browne has been gunning for a WWE career since he’s always in every Rhonda video, almost Always is the background... anyway he may have done his audition this time

I think that’s exactly the problem - you can’t tell wrestling stories with 5 hours of tv, but only using 20 people or so.

They have SO many people on the roster that aren’t being utilised well, or even at ALL! there are no squash matches which helped get big monsters over without requiring much of them, and there are title defences almost every night which seems like too much to me.

I think I’m way more interested in AEW now, because of the promise of what could be, instead of the disappointment of what is. WWE is doing the right thing bringing back some of the old names to help write and produce the show

Hear, hear. they are panicking because the ratings are SO bad. You’ve got to put the blame at Vince’s feet; I think he’s totally mischaracterising the audience. Or he is putting too much faith in writers who have contempt for their audience.

Older viewers are smartened up, new viewers are just smart, period. And fans of old
School “wrasslin’” (which vince allegedly hates) are turned off by the total lack of wrestling on RAW. the audience isn’t a bunch of dumbasses who will just follow any old story just because there’s a match at the end of the tunnel.

WWE is clearly scared of AEW’s funding, and unlike WCW, this time they may really put WWE out of commission. Let’s see how Double or Nothing goes - it could still flop, or Wwe could muscle them out like they did at MSG.

Meaning basically no formula? Lol, that’s what it seemed like!

At least there was Bret and SCSA at WM13 back then - eventually. Seems like we’re more like 1994;WM 10 level lameness.

Nice! I have that GFuel Flair shaker cup. Works well!

Ask Miss Elizabeth about the Macho Man sack. *rimshot*

I am on board, I just hope they can sustain the momentum. Their production value will not look anything close to WWE which I know will turn a lot of Fans off.

I’m ready though - just cancelled my Network subscription (along with my NJPW account, as I didn’t watch that nearly as much I thought I would - and the lack of a Roku or PS3/smart tv app was a killer)

Here’s hoping Ambrose/Moxley hits AEW and not Impact !

Very unlikely, agreed. But if the Khan family sees an opportunity here, and they can prove they are able to keep up with live tv, they may be able to cause USA, FOX to renegotiate the WWE contracts. That would be bad. They've become complacent what with the Network, and zero competition.

WWE still has tons of money pouring in from Saudi Arabia (don't even get me started) so they may be able to persist if they just become the Prince's personal wrestling company, but... i mean, damn. How do they not even give a crap about their own product? This is what 50/50 booking and "the brand is the star" gets you. Big trouble.

LOL

Yep. They even made me not care about vintage matches! End of May can’t get here fast enough...

Thx for the reminder! I’ve heard Court(sp?) Bauer on a bunch of podcasts but never checked out the product

Wth moonsaulting cat! Is Jim cornette involved with this or would he have a conniption?

Just watched it last night, it was wacko! Lol

YES!

https://www.cagesideseats.com/2019/5/15/18624861/wins-losses-matter-analytics-aew-cody-rhodes-quotes

That seems high because of the WWE Network - but that’s a fairly good price. Boxing is WAY more nowadays

Makes sense IMO. NXT (being shorter) has been a much better show than Raw lately. Maybe even Smackdown too. I'm uh, sure, it had NOTHING to do with another show starting up on Wednesdays...

Agreed 100%