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[Guest]

Loved the Rumble, really nice storytelling. I think they slightly under utilised Matt Riddle, but I can look past it considering how well booked it was outside of that. Brock genuinely came across perfectly, it's exactly how he should be booked. Kofi and Morrison both failed to give us their amazing "how did they survive" spots, but I think that was a crucial piece to the story that crowd favourite moments like that were secondary to what they were trying to overcome against Brock.

They'll waste Drew's push mind.

Edited January 27, 2020 by JoeH

[DE.]

Really enjoyed the Royal Rumble PPV. One of the strongest efforts WWE has put out in a long time. Both rumble matches were excellent, and the other matches were decent as well. I liked that the aesthetic was a bit different to normal - it gave the PPV a unique feel rather than the usual homogenised sets. 

Reigns/Corbin was a good brawl to start the show, but I really can't care about a feud with King Corbin as the centrepiece. It does nothing for me at all.

I thought the women's rumble match was interesting and entertaining. Random thoughts:

- Always great to hear the old Hurricane theme, and Mighty Molly was a fun throwback.

- The Mandy Rose/Otis spot was really clever. 

- Naomi looked good on her return, still very much over with the crowd. The spot where she jumped from the steps to the barricade was very well done. 

- Nice pop for Beth Phoenix and she still looks and performs very well. She got some serious colour in her hair though, assume she must have gotten a cut somewhere.

- I found the Santina stuff pretty funny.

- I think I have a bit of a crush on Tegan Nox. 

- It doesn't bother me that Charlotte won, although I think it would have been more interesting to have Baszler go over. I would rather have seen Becky/Baszler at WM than another Becky/Charlotte match. Will be interesting to see whether they do end up going with Becky/Charlotte or if they choose a different route.

Bayley/Lacey Evans was certainly the worst match of the night. Bayley's run as champion has just been awful, and Lacey needs to drop the whole "Southern Belle" gimmick and transition into something a little more natural. She has a hell of a genuine backstory but the Southern Belle stuff is campy and limiting. 

Wyatt/Bryan was a good match. I'm glad they toned down the horror movie campiness and had more of a traditional match. No red lighting either, thank goodness. The Fiend continues to look unstoppable, although I'm guessing they will find some kind of weakness to exploit storyline-wise before Wrestlemania when I expect Wyatt will lose the title.

Lynch/Asuka was solid, not much more to say on it. Although I will say that the ending was weird - why did Asuka's head shoot up from being kicked in the stomach? Should have done an uppercut or something.

The men's rumble match was one of the best they've done in recent times. From a storyline perspective it was top notch and had me engaged the entire way through. Also loved Booker T being back on commentary, he's very entertaining. Random notes:

- Brock mowing down competitor after competitor in the early going told a good story, but I'm not sure Morrison (who has only just returned) needed to be thrown to the wolf like that. 

- Poor Kofi - what a come down after his run as champion last year. Firstly getting buried by Brock on the FOX Smackdown debut, never getting or seeming to want a rematch, tossed back into tag team nothingness, and now fed to Lesnar along with Big E and Rey Mysterio in the rumble. It feels like in the end his title run counted for little in terms of raising his stature, as he's now right back where he was before essentially.

- It was cool to see MVP back, even briefly.

- Lesnar upon seeing Keith Lee: "Ohhh, big boy. [to Heyman] Who is this motherfucker?" - hilarious.

- Brock was definitely eliminated at the right time, he was looking seriously gassed by the time Ricochet came out. Sweat everywhere, face beetroot red - I was getting a bit concerned for him! I'm not sure why he didn't just toss Ricochet out when he had the chance, but that ultimately led to the low blow which allowed McIntyre to eliminate him, so at least it served a storyline purpose. I thought they might have Brock stick around and attack McIntyre, but after hanging around at ringside for a while he just left. To be honest he looked so exhausted I'm not sure he could have done much more anyway.

- Hell of a pop for Drew eliminating Brock. They told a great story with McIntyre during this entire match.

- I had to laugh when Drew chucked Ricochet out of the ring like a sack of shit. 

- What did Miz do to get jobbed out like that? I was a bit surprised to see him handled so easily by McIntyre. Not a good night for him or Morrison!

- Edge's return was just awesome. I got goosebumps when his music hit and he came out. You could see how emotional he was. He looks old facially now but he still has a great physique and he didn't miss a beat in the ring. It was like he hadn't been away at all - what a pro. 

- With that said, how the fuck did they manage to completely miss Edge's first spear? Somehow they cut to the crowd just as he ran to hit it. Crazy bad camera botch. I bet Vince was raging. The camera cuts in general during Edge's entrance were ridiculous. Calm the fuck down. 

- AJ's injury was unfortunate. A seperated shoulder apparently, from Edge's spear. You could see he landed really awkwardly taking it, and was pretty much done for the rest of the match. He called his own elimination so I guess they had to change some stuff on the fly - would be interested to know what the original plan was and how far into the rumble AJ was meant to go.

- Matt Riddle super over, as expected. I laughed when Graves called him the original bro and Booker was like "I'm the original bro" - obviously referring to his old G.I. Bro gimmick.

- Disappointed with how quickly Riddle was eliminated - by Corbin of all people. A small nitpick though.

- So much for people saying Roman would never be booed again when he came back. A very mixed reception for him tonight. With that said this eternal feud with Corbin isn't doing him any favours and I wish they'd drop it.

- The KO/Joe & Seth/AOP/Murphy storyline was integrated really well into the match. 

- Seth is a great heel, thank god they had the sense to turn him. For some reason as a heel he's always reminded me of nWo era Hollywood Hogan. Just some of the mannerisms, the colour scheme, always being surrounded by heavies to do his dirty work. It might just be me on that one though.

- One thing I will say is that the above portion of the rumble did highlight a major pet peeve of mine when it comes to this match. It's no-DQ, so why do people interfering stand around outside the ring? Why did AOP & Murphy not jump in the ring with Seth and beat down the others? I've never understood the logic here. I also wonder why, if it's no-DQ, more weapons aren't used in the rumble. Theoretically there's nothing stopping anybody grabbing a chair and going apeshit. 

- Related to the above I also think it's logically flawed to have competitors either not in the rumble or eliminated from the rumble assisting in eliminating legit competitors. I don't feel like it should count. For example when Lana caused Liv Morgan to be eliminated in the women's match - why should this count? Lana wasn't in the match anymore as she had already been eliminated.

-  I was digging the Team RKO reunion. The double RKO was great, and the spot where Orton got caught sizing up Edge for an RKO was pretty funny. 

- When Edge and Roman were on the apron fighting at the end I thought Drew was going to hit the pair of them with a double Claymore to eliminate both. I think that would have been a great spot, rather than Roman eliminating Edge, getting back in the ring and then eventually getting thrown out by Drew. That was a wicked looking Claymore to Roman at the end though.

Overall a very good Rumble - one of the best - and now we start the road to WrestleMania. 

Edited January 27, 2020 by DE.

[Mike E]

Looks like Riddle was jobbed out quickly in reaction to verbally squaring up to Lesnar backstage before the PPV started.

[DE.]

Interesting. Riddle has form for getting himself into trouble with stuff like this unfortunately.

[Mike E]

13 minutes ago, DE. said:

Interesting. Riddle has form for getting himself into trouble with stuff like this unfortunately.

In light of Brock vs Drew, I'd like to see Riddle go over a Doctr of Thuganomics Cena at WM. Would really put over the Bro character on the mainstream imo.

[DE.]

9 minutes ago, Mike E said:

In light of Brock vs Drew, I'd like to see Riddle go over a Doctr of Thuganomics Cena at WM. Would really put over the Bro character on the mainstream imo.

Riddle is definitely a potential megastar. Just a case of whether WWE trust him enough to strap a rocket to him.

[DE.]

A better version of Edge's return, as the original RR version is pretty terrible:

 

[Bigdoggsteel]

16 hours ago, Mike E said:

In light of Brock vs Drew, I'd like to see Riddle go over a Doctr of Thuganomics Cena at WM. Would really put over the Bro character on the mainstream imo.

Has Cena ever taken a loss like that though and would he? Would certainly be good for Riddle. 

[Mike E]

3 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Has Cena ever taken a loss like that though and would he? Would certainly be good for Riddle. 

I feel like he would, it's not like Cena needs to maintain a rep anymore. He's basically completed WWE's Mount Rushmore now.

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Mike E said:

I feel like he would, it's not like Cena needs to maintain a rep anymore. He's basically completed WWE's Mount Rushmore now.

You would think so, but he hasn't done it yet. He strikes me as someone who wants to protect his legacy, maybe even more so than Hogan. I mean even he turned heel. 

I agree that Cena should give the younger lads a rub at this point 

Edited January 28, 2020 by Bigdoggsteel

[DE.]

Cool clip posted on AEDub's Instagram of Jericho's entrance on the cruise without commentary:

 

[DE.]

Some interesting goings on at WWE right now to say the list.

They've fired both the CFO and CRO, who were effectively co-Presidents and the highest ranking people in the company besides Vince himself. Both sacked with immediate effect, no transition period, no gardening leave, just straight up gone. Goes without saying that's highly unusual. Their accounts forecast investors call is on 6th Feb which suggests it's going to be bad news to say the least.

https://finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/wwe-executive-exits-spook-analysts-143700718.html

1 billion knocked off the company's price in the immediate aftermath of the news breaking. They've got their Saudi deal and the monster TV deals as a financial cushion, but all other metrics are trending negatively and have been for some time. Attendence, gate receipts, merch, ratings, WWE Network subscriber count... pretty much everything is trending downwards and has been for a while. If not for their lucrative TV/Saudi deals this company would be in some major trouble.

Meanwhile the XFL starts in a couple of weeks, meaning Vince will be juggling his time between two huge projects... fair to say investors are spooked and rightfully so!

Edited January 31, 2020 by DE.

[Mike E]

For Vince to dump 2 out of his 5 most trusted senior staff seemingly so suddenly, something severe must've happened?

[DE.]

Official word from Vince is that there was a difference in opinion in the direction the company should go, but that seems unlikely to me. Not saying it wasn't a problem but there's no way that alone would cause immediate termination. To risk wiping a billion off the company's price just because of a disagreement over direction seems ridiculous to me, even for Vince.

Something serious must have gone down - need big Dave on the case pronto to get this investigated. 

[Dreyski]

George Barrios and Michelle Wilson.

https://corporate.wwe.com/investors/news/press-releases/2020/01-30-2020-213333313

Some former WWE employee on Twitter:

A former WWE employee: "I will never forget the WWE all-hands meeting when staff – frustrated with limited parking at the office – asked about renovations to the garage, and George Barrios said they had considered it, but decided to buy a new private plane instead. Anyway, I wish him well."

?

[DE.]

Judging by AEW Dark it looks like they are breaking up the Nightmare Collective. Thank god for that.

[Mike E]

Is it just me or has Raw been good-at-worst so far this year?

[DE.]

Raw has been solid this year so far. In the past it was pretty much a given that the quality of the show would go up between January-April due to the Rumble/Wrestlemania, but it hasn't really been the case in the past few years as WWE has been on auto-pilot. I think the emergence of AEW and declining metrics across the board (TV deals aside) has given WWE a bit of a kick in the arse, and obviously Heyman having significant creative influence on Raw has been a big plus. A shame Heyman can't write Smackdown as well. 

[DE.]

I watched Smackdown for the first time in at least 3 or 4 weeks this week and it feels like I barely missed anything.

Miz and Morrison are still doing their nostalgic tour shit and nobody cares. New Day are still antagonising them and the Usos are still around. Also Ziggler and Roode are still a team. OK.

Corbin and Reigns are still involved in this never-ending feud - surely the longest feud in history that absolutely nobody gives a shit about? 

Elias is still doing nothing of importance, Zayn is still managing and Cesaro is still jobbing. 

Goldberg is advertised to appear and then it's by satellite. Just fucking lol. Way to troll your audience. The only reason I even decided to check out SD this week was because Goldberg was advertised. Fiend Vs Goldberg in Saudi does intrigue me purely on the basis of how they'll give Wyatt the win without making Goldberg look like a chode. 

Bryan apparently hasn't been around since losing to the Fiend so I literally haven't missed anything there. For some reason he has a match with Heath Slater and that's it, so, nothing creatively for him then?

So apparently Strowman beat Nakamura for the IC title, but it's hard to care as I barely remember anything Nakamura did as IC champion anyway. Zayn is still managing him as well, for reasons. Isn't Zayn a pretty good wrestler? Why in the world has he been converted to a permanent manager? Bizarre.

The Mandy Rose/Otis thing is still going on, a storyline which basically consists of "ha ha look at this fat guy dating a hot blonde". Will assumedly end with Mandy turning on Otis, quelle surprise. 

Sheamus/Apollo Crews... who cares. He's still feuding with Shorty G, which is just the shittiest name and gimmick ever. Why bother having Sheamus come back for shit like this? Put him and Cesaro back together already.

The women's four way main event was okay, and they worked hard, but Naomi is the only one of the four who is a great wrestler. Bliss is a great character, whilst Carmella and Dana Brooke have been lost in the shuffle since 2016. 

I won't be watching Smackdown next week.

[Mike E]

Finally caught up on AEW. That lashing segment was very uncomfortable and had me squirming, but holy moly what a fantastic bit of storytelling.

I always knew Cody was talented, but he'd never be allowed to be that good in WWE. Although admittedly it must be easier to act hurt when you're being actually physically lashed...

[DE.]

Dynamite was great again this week. They've been much more consistent since the turn of the new year - although apparently that was when Tony Khan began taking more control of creative, so that might be why. I get the feeling he saw the backlash to the horrible Dark Order main event segment before Christmas and realised the inmates couldn't always be in charge of the asylum.

[Bigdoggsteel]

On 08/02/2020 at 12:01, DE. said:

I watched Smackdown for the first time in at least 3 or 4 weeks this week and it feels like I barely missed anything.

Miz and Morrison are still doing their nostalgic tour shit and nobody cares. New Day are still antagonising them and the Usos are still around. Also Ziggler and Roode are still a team. OK.

Corbin and Reigns are still involved in this never-ending feud - surely the longest feud in history that absolutely nobody gives a shit about? 

Elias is still doing nothing of importance, Zayn is still managing and Cesaro is still jobbing. 

Goldberg is advertised to appear and then it's by satellite. Just fucking lol. Way to troll your audience. The only reason I even decided to check out SD this week was because Goldberg was advertised. Fiend Vs Goldberg in Saudi does intrigue me purely on the basis of how they'll give Wyatt the win without making Goldberg look like a chode. 

Bryan apparently hasn't been around since losing to the Fiend so I literally haven't missed anything there. For some reason he has a match with Heath Slater and that's it, so, nothing creatively for him then?

So apparently Strowman beat Nakamura for the IC title, but it's hard to care as I barely remember anything Nakamura did as IC champion anyway. Zayn is still managing him as well, for reasons. Isn't Zayn a pretty good wrestler? Why in the world has he been converted to a permanent manager? Bizarre.

The Mandy Rose/Otis thing is still going on, a storyline which basically consists of "ha ha look at this fat guy dating a hot blonde". Will assumedly end with Mandy turning on Otis, quelle surprise. 

Sheamus/Apollo Crews... who cares. He's still feuding with Shorty G, which is just the shittiest name and gimmick ever. Why bother having Sheamus come back for shit like this? Put him and Cesaro back together already.

The women's four way main event was okay, and they worked hard, but Naomi is the only one of the four who is a great wrestler. Bliss is a great character, whilst Carmella and Dana Brooke have been lost in the shuffle since 2016. 

I won't be watching Smackdown next week.

Thanks, I haven't watched it in 2 years and you have just updated me. Yep, not much changed. 

I thought they might push Seamus when he came back, but whatever about him, I was 100% they were going to push Cesaro 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Bigdoggsteel

[DE.]

3 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Thanks, I haven't watched it in 2 years and you have just updated me. Yep, not much changed. 

I thought they might push Seamus when he came back, but whatever about him, I was 100% they were going to push Cesaro 

Smackdown really hasn't been any good since that 2016-2017 period when they were on fire. Talking Smack was great too. Since then downhill and now total shit. No idea how it draws 2.5m viewers every week. Must be a lot of bored people on Friday nights in the States.

Honestly the only time I've found Sheamus interesting was when he feuded with and then teamed with Cesaro. He bores me to tears otherwise and nothing's changed in his latest singles run.

Cesaro will never be pushed as long as Vince is around. Should go to AEW where he'd be properly used.

Edited February 11, 2020 by DE.

[Bigdoggsteel]

16 hours ago, DE. said:

Smackdown really hasn't been any good since that 2016-2017 period when they were on fire. Talking Smack was great too. Since then downhill and now total shit. No idea how it draws 2.5m viewers every week. Must be a lot of bored people on Friday nights in the States.

Honestly the only time I've found Sheamus interesting was when he feuded with and then teamed with Cesaro. He bores me to tears otherwise and nothing's changed in his latest singles run.

Cesaro will never be pushed as long as Vince is around. Should go to AEW where he'd be properly used.

Ya, I think Cesaro has so much potential. Criminal how he has been used, but I imagine he is on a nice big fat contract. I read in a paper here Seamus is on £2.5 million a year, would that be right?? I have no idea what wrestlers are paid. 

[Mike E]

Cesaro (when briefly signed with Heyman)could've been put on a level of Brock Lesnar imo. Maybe even challenged him at the time.